{"id":6303,"date":"2019-10-07T11:00:48","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=6303"},"modified":"2019-10-16T19:52:27","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T19:52:27","slug":"spreekwoorden-en-uitdrukkingen-sayings-and-expressions-11-nopjes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/spreekwoorden-en-uitdrukkingen-sayings-and-expressions-11-nopjes\/","title":{"rendered":"Spreekwoorden en Uitdrukkingen (Sayings and Expressions) 11 – Nopjes!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s October, which means summer is\u00a0definitief\u00a0<\/em>(definitively) over! And that, in turn, means getting your\u00a0winterkleren\u00a0<\/em>(winter clothing) out again. So let’s talk about\u00a0nopjes<\/em>! Wait, what?<\/p>\n

For other sayings and expressions in this series, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Kinderen zijn een zegen des Heren maar zij houden de noppen van de kleren<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Nopjes<\/em> (burls, fluff) on wol<\/em> (wool) (Image by Efraimstochter at Pixabay.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

Literally: Children are a blessing from the Lord but they keep the burls off their clothes<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t actually know what you would say in English as an equivalent! Let me know in the comments below if you know.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0spreekwoord\u00a0<\/em>(saying) basically means that\u00a0kinderen\u00a0<\/em>(children) are great and all, but boy, are they expensive!<\/p>\n

Example:<\/p>\n

Het is echt leuk om drie kinderen te hebben, maar we kunnen ons niets meer veroorloven, niet eens een weekendje weg!<\/em><\/p>\n

–\u00a0Tja, kinderen zijn een zegen des Heren maar zij houden de noppen van de kleren.<\/em><\/p>\n

(It is really fun to have three children, but we can’t afford anything anymore, not even a little weekend getaway!<\/p>\n

– Well, children are a blessing from the Lord but they keep the burls off their clothes.)<\/p>\n

It is quite an obvious\u00a0spreekwoord<\/em>, so there’s not too much of an origin story here. What I want to focus on, rather, are the\u00a0noppen<\/em>. More on that below with the\u00a0uitdrukking\u00a0<\/em>(expression).<\/p>\n

In je nopjes zijn<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Cleats with nopjes (Image by Fachry Zella Devandra at Unsplash.com)<\/p><\/div>\n

To be over the moon<\/strong><\/p>\n

Literally: to be in your burls<\/em><\/p>\n

Being in your burls! That sounds fun, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

But how are burls related to this? I always thought, especially as a child, that\u00a0nopjes\u00a0<\/em>referred to the\u00a0nopjes <\/em>(studs) under\u00a0voetbalschoenen\u00a0<\/em>(cleats). Playing football is fun, makes sense that being in your\u00a0nopjes<\/em>, your cleats, means having a fun time.<\/p>\n

And I wasn’t too far off, actually!\u00a0Nopjes\u00a0<\/em>really is a\u00a0pars pro toto\u00a0<\/em>(part for the whole, when a part of something refers to the entire thing, e.g. you say “studs” but mean “cleats”). But, as above with the\u00a0spreekwoord<\/em>, we are talking about\u00a0pluisjes\u00a0<\/em>(fluff) here, the little\u00a0nopjes\u00a0<\/em>(burls) that appear on clothes.<\/p>\n

Back in the day, those\u00a0nopjes\u00a0<\/em>would wear off once you wore them more and washed them, got them dirty. At some point, the word\u00a0nopjes <\/em>would be used as a pars pro toto <\/em>referring to clothes, in particular fancy zondagskleren <\/em>(sunday clothes) or other feestkleding <\/em>(celebration clothes). So clothing you would not wear a lot, that still has a lot of\u00a0nopjes<\/em>, is still quite new.<\/p>\n

And on days of celebration, you’re usually in a good mood.1<\/a><\/sup>“No, not me!” I hear you say. Well… Let’s just assume that you are, otherwise this theory falls apart!<\/span> And so on days of celebration, you wear your\u00a0nopjes.\u00a0<\/em>So:\u00a0nopjes\u00a0<\/em>must mean good mood! And with that lapse of logic we’ve arrived at the wonderful uitdrukking “in je nopjes zijn”<\/em>. It is still used a lot today, and one of the more well-known ones.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0spreekwoord\u00a0<\/em>above can be explained in a similar way. The kids keep the\u00a0nopjes\u00a0<\/em>off the clothes, meaning they wear them off and you have to get them new ones – which gets expensive fast!<\/p>\n

Example<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Ik zie mijn vriendin snel weer! Ik ben helemaal in mijn nopjes!<\/em><\/p>\n

(I will see my girlfriend again soon! I am completely over the moon!)<\/p>\n

Have you heard of these two before? Do you have a similar\u00a0spreekwoord\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0uitdrukking\u00a0<\/em>in your language? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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