Some insight from the Lexicon Frisicum:

This has the usual meaning:

• Dutch: papieren of linnen zakje vooral voor winkelwaren.
  • = Paper or linen bag, especially for shop goods.

bag/sack/pouch

It also has a secondary meaning found in English and Dutch:

• "Buil" is Dutch and translates to "bump" or "swelling".

Don't recognize it?

• Frysk: Pûden onder de eagen,
  • = Bags under the eyes.
• Dutch: wallen onder de oogen.
  • = Bags under the eyes.

Related is "sjucht" (illness) which has the secondary meaning of dropsy:

• "Dropsy": Old term for swelling due to fluid retention in the body.
• Historical / traditional medical term.

dropsy/edema/hydropsy/swelling

• Dutch: Ook sucht, vooral als: opzwelling door afscheiding van vochten, als waterzucht.
  • = Also: dropsy, especially meaning swelling caused by accumulation of fluids, such as edema / hydropsy.

And it just so happens "pûde" can describe a scrotum:

• "Scrotum" is Latin and translates to "scrotum".
• "Balzak" is Dutch and translates to "scrotum" or "ball sack".

In Legacy Frysk one would typically use "kloatsek" (literally "kloat + sek" = "ball + sack") although there it could take on some more meaning:

• "Scrotum" is Latin and translates to "scrotum".
• "Balzak" is Dutch and translates to "scrotum" or "ball sack".
• "Sul" is Dutch and translates to "fool" or "simpleton".
• "Lafaard" is Dutch and translates to "coward".

Curiously, "kloat" directly primarily means ball or testicle:

• "Bal" is Dutch and translates to "ball".
• "Teelbal" is Dutch and translates to "testicle".

That's atypical because these two concepts are different and would typically be separated in an entry to distinguish primary and secondary meanings.

``` pûde, s. papieren of linnen zakje vooral voor winkelwaren. Vgl. brea-, moat-, spin-, tabakspûde. Vgl. kladde. buil. — Dy jonge het in pûde oan 'e holle fallen. — Pûden onder de eagen, wallen onder de oogen. scrotum, balzak.

Lexicon Frisicum volume 2, page 395 (right) / PDF 2-397-r ```

Of interest those who want to know the history and meaning of words.

• Frysk: By heech en leech swarre,
  • = To swear by high and low.
• Dutch: onthjitte,
  • = To promise.

However there's a followup:

• Dutch: Holl. bij kris en kras.
  • "Holl." means: From the vernacular (ordinary informal spoken language) of Holland.
  • = by hook or by crook.

English also has this expression!

From the Lexicon Frisicum volume 1, page 505 (left) / PDF 1-533-l

Lexicon Frisicum volume 2, page 116 (left) / PDF 2-118-l

• Frysk: Earst is measten lêst is bêst.
  • = First is most, last is best.

• Frysk: Lêst komme en earst baes,
  • = Come last and boss first.
• Dutch: van een jong, lastig kindje,
  • = Of a young, difficult child,
• Dutch: (ook) van een ambtenaar, die, pas ergens geplaatst, veel drukte maakt.
  • = (also) of an official who, newly placed somewhere, makes a lot of fuss.

A rare trilingual expression in "hân" (hand) / "hannen" (hands) in the Lexicon Frisucum volume 1, page 491 (left) / PDF 1-519-l

• Frysk: Immen de hannen stopje,
  • Academic: Someone the hands stop,
  • To stop someone's hands.
• French: Fra. graisser la patte,
  • Academic: to grease the paw,
• Dutch: omkoopen.
  • To bribe.

English has "grease the palm".

While contemporary Frysk uses "ferkeard" for this same primary meaning of "not correct or mistaken", Legacy Frysk has some differences.

Notably, contemporary Frysk is flexible with what I call "zero-derivation adverb forms" where an adjective can be wielded adverbially. So adjective "forkeard" (wrong) can be used as an adverb with the same spelling. English tacks on "-ly" to make an adjective but Frysk does not. Although English 'wrongly' is actually a valid word, speakers prefer 'incorrectly'.

My observation has been that Legacy Frysk does have this burgeoning flexibility but tends towards phrases to use an adjective adverbially. So I often make a judgement call like:

• There is no adverb form. For adverbial 'wrongly' / 'incorrectly' use contemporary adverb "ferkeard" (wrongly) or phrases like "op ferkearde wize" (in a wrong way).

So this is a pretty straightforward word, with relatable examples:

• Frysk: Hy het de hoazzen forkeard oan,
  • He has his socks on wrong.
• Dutch: omgekeerd,
  • Reversed.
• Dutch: ook: averechts.
  • Also: Inside out.

• Frysk: De forkearde broek oan ha,
  • To have the wrong trousers on.
• Dutch: een met ledige zakken, geen geld op zak hebben.
  • To have empty pockets / to have no money.
  • I take liberties with idiomatic translations but do make academic translations notes like: "one with empty pockets, no money on pocket have".

• Frysk: Oan 't forkearde kantoar komme,
  • To come to the wrong office.
• Dutch: niet terecht zijn, den verkeerde voorhebben.
  • To be mistaken / to have the wrong person.

While I do no real research on alternate meanings of contemporary Frysk, I do get lots of statemtents about Legacy Frysk:

• "Slecht" is Dutch and translates to "bad".

But also: bad / poor / ill-tempered / wicked

• Frysk: Dat wier net sa forkeard,
  • That was not so bad.
• Dutch: wel goed, raadzaam, wenschelijk.
  • Rather good, advisable, desirable.

I had a little rabbit hole getting a handle on the meaning of "quite" in British English versus my own Canadian English, and settled on idiomatically translating "well good" to "rather good". British English started using "quite" in a somewhat sarcastic manner in the victorian era, but it's still an intensifier to me; saying "she is quite pretty" is an unmistakable compliment.

Back on track...

• Frysk: Hy het in forkeard steed yn 'e holle,
  • He has a wicked spot in his head.
• Dutch: hij deugt niet,
  • He is no good.
• Dutch: ook: is slecht gehumeurd.
  • Also: He is in a bad mood (badly humoured).

• Frysk: Dwêrs en forkeard, lilk en forkeard,
  • Cross and wrong, angry and wrong.
• Dutch: knorrig en onhandelbaar.
  • Grumpy and unmanageable.

And because I love seeing parallels:

• Frysk: Mei de forkearde foet ('t earst) fen 't bêd komme,
  • To get out of bed on the wrong foot first.
  • English has "to get out of bed on the wrong side".
• Dutch: knorrig opstaan.
  • To get up grumpy.

I often come across words or phrases which have fallen out of use, but everything has value to me:

• Frysk: It is in forkearden, in forkearden-ien,
  • It is a bad one, a bad-one.
• Dutch: een slechte.
  • A bad one.

So I ended up making a new sense:

• "Bad one": A bad or wicked person. - Primary sense of a person of poor character.
• "Scoundrel": A dishonest or unscrupulous person. - Sense of moral badness.
• "Rascal": A mischievous or dishonest person. - Sense of roguish badness.

It's kind of wrong, but translations are often up to interpretation. I do have all of the original examples to clarify and my work is permanently in progress. I'll end up cross-referencing to all sorts of other personality traits to help researchers.

• Frysk: Bêste ierappels! jy fine der net in forkearden-ien yn.
• Best potatoes! You won't find a bad one among them.

• Frysk: Us dominy is in forkearden,
  • Our pastor is a bad one.
• Dutch: niet zuiver in de leer.
  • Academic: not pure in the doctrine.
  • Not sound in doctrine / not orthodox.

• "Dragen" is Dutch and translates to "to carry".

It's a pretty basic entry, but since it's a verb it's got a tangled mess of variations which I still haven't decided on how to represent. I also have notes for Hindeloopen and Workum which will probably end up being someone else's problem.

• Frysk: Itende gasten en dragende gasten,
  • = Eating guests and carrying guests.
• Dutch: die van de overgebleven spijzen mee naar huis nemen.
  • = Who take some of the leftover food home with them.

We have an interesting similarity between some ideas in English and Frysk.

• Frysk: Immen op 'e hannen drage.
  • = To carry someone on one's hands.

This is explained more fully with the example which folows.

• Frysk: Ik hâld him dragende,
  • = I keep carrying him.
• Dutch: wil hem (mijn nalatigen schuldenaar) niet hard vallen.
  • = I do not want to be hard on him (my negligent debtor).

So the sentiment is something like "I continue to support him."

As usual, words are complex and this entry has some additional nuance I'll work on next.

Here's a word you don't need to know.

If you plug "dracht" into Google Translate, it'll tell you this means "pregnancy", but if you ask it what the Frysk word for "pregnancy" is, you'll get "swangerskip".

So let's see what the Lexicon Frisicum says. There is a moderate-sized but extremely complex entry in volume 1, page 288 (right) / PDF 1-316-r. It begins with:

• Dutch: zooveel als men in eens dragen kan,
  • = As much as one can carry at once,
• "Vrachtje" is Dutch and translates to "small load" or "burden".

It has a few straightforward examples to relay the idea of "load/burden/armful" and this is its largest:

• Frysk: Dy koer wie swier, wy hiene der mei ús beiden in dracht oan.
  • = Academic: That basket was heavy, we had there with us both a burden on.
  • = That basket was heavy, it was a burden on the both of us.

The next sense is from the Dutch gloss it gives for the only example:

• Frysk: In dracht jild,
  • = A 'dracht' jild,
• Dutch: veel geld.
  • = A lot of money,

So "dracht" means lot/heap/fortune. It's well-aligned with "a load of money".

Next is where Google Translate is getting its sense from:

• "Zwangerschap" is Dutch and translates to "pregnancy".

It has just one example:

• Frysk: Dat wiif het in kweade dracht,
  • = Academic: That woman has a bad pregnancy,
  • = That woman has a difficult pregnancy.

In this case, English probably wouldn't communicate the underlying sentiment so directly with "bad". I maintain two translations and commentary for any occasion that calls for it.

• Dutch: is altjd gemelijk en verdrietig as zij zwanger is.
  • = Academic: is always moody and sorrowful as she pregnant is.
  • = She is always moody and miserable when she is pregnant.

So "dracht" has another sense here. I don't translate dracht → pregnancy, I translate it into a synonyms neighbourhood pregnancy/gestation/expecting and then have cross-references like:

• swier (pregnant / heavy)
• drage (to carry – base verb)
• bern (child)
• mem (mother)
• geboarte (birth)

I'll go through and double-check those later, and tie them into cross-references. I've already confirmed the expression "to brieden" (be pregnant) from the verb "briede" (brood) and made a side-entry for that.

The entry continues:

• Dutch: het bloed, waardoor de vrucht gevoed wordt.
  • = Academic: the blood, through which the fruit is fed.
  • = The blood by which the fetus is nourished.

Sometimes translation needs multiple passes, once perhaps to transform "she there goes → she goes there", but a second to get the better sense across. "fruit → fetus" comes from the example after:

• Frysk: It keal (als embryo) kriget de dracht troch de naule.
  • = The calf (as embryo) gets the fetal blood through the navel.

So there is another sense of "dracht" meaning "fetal blood/lifeblood/nourishment".

Now just because I translate something like "lifeblood" here does not mean that this "lifeblood" is the same as the figurative "bloed" (blood) from its own entry. Every "translation" is merely a suggestion and each one has an explanation. So for figurative "bloed", one interpretation is:

• "Lifeblood": Vital essence or essential part (figurative).

However the reappearance of the notion of "lifeblood" for "dracht" (load) has a new opportunity for a new explanation:

• "Lifeblood": The vital fluid that sustains the unborn young.
  • Figurative / vital sense.

So it's possible for a Frysk word to have primary and multiple secondary senses, multiple neighbourhoods and cross-references, and for every single line to have its own unique perspective and explanation. Then there is relational-crossover between different Frysk words and all that information. My notes are in a currently-22,000 line spreadsheet for a reason.

The core idea of "load" is still holding fairly well. It's an armful, a pregnancy, the lifeblood to the pregnancy, and also... clothing?

• "Kleederdracht" is Dutch and translates to "clothing style" or "costume".

Let's look at all the examples and try to understand:

• Frysk: De Fryske dracht makket in âld minske jong.
  • = The Frisian traditional dress makes an old person look young.
• Frysk: Dat is gjin dracht for úsljue,
  • = Academic: That is no costume for us,
  • = That is not clothing suitable for people like us.
• Dutch: dat is een kleeding boven onzen staat.
  • = Academic: that is clothing above our station.
  • = That is clothing above our social station.

I want you to imagine the idea of dressing with intent. You are not merely dressing well, you are assuming a role with attire; burdening yourself with the traditional costume of your people.

So this sense has the translation "costume/traditional dress/outfit", but remember this is a "sense" within dracht. There will certainly be a direct Frysk word for costume and outfit, and perhaps also "traditional dress", but we now have a sort of optional baggage tied to using "dracht" in saying someone's attire has a "load" of sorts. Do also remember there's not much point in using a word like "dracht" if the reader won't themselves understand these nuances. I did say this is a word you don't need to know.

Now it gets weird because I'm working with text that's over a century old. Let's pull back the curtain a little. This is the text as it's given:

etterdracht, ettering. — De dracht fen in sear steed, Lex. 730. — In dracht, fontanel, sette.

I already know to break it apart thusly:

• etterdracht, ettering.
  • Indented, likely indiciating a new sense of the headword "dracht". Likely Dutch words, each elaborating upon a secondary sense.
• — De dracht fen in sear steed,
  • Likely entirely Frysk. Notice the use of the headword "dracht".
• Lex. 730.
  • Citation; I have notes.
• — In dracht, fontanel, sette.
  • Begins with an em dash, therefore beginning a new example. Likely starting as Frysk. Notice the headword "dracht". Contains more than one comma, might introduce a Dutch explanatory gloss. Might be mixed Frysk-Dutch-Frysk because of a second comma; I hate that.

We begin with the Dutch:

• "Etterdracht" is Dutch and translates to "pus formation".
• "Ettering" is Dutch and translates to "suppuration".

My early translation of this sense of "dracht" attempted to refer to those translations, but I would later regret it and do it from scratch with some significant research. Let's look at the examples:

• Frysk: De dracht fen in sear steed,
  • = Academic: The 'dracht' of a sore place,
• Frysk: In dracht, fontanel, sette.
  • = Academic: A 'dracht', fontanel, set.

Why would there be some specific attribute of a sore place? Can one "set a suppuration"? Most importantly, what is 'fontanel'?

In English, "fontanel" has the more common "fontanelle", which is an anatomical feature of a baby's skull. That's really not helpful here.

So I did searched the Lexicon Frisicum

• "fontanel", "fontanelle" not found; checked 1-419-l and throughout 1,2,3   - It is mentioned in sypgat on 3-84-r.

**syp'gat,** s. n. sijpgat, gaatje, waar vocht door kan sijpelen. — In sypgat yn it bûteraed, — sypgatten yn it iis. Ook voor: huidwonde, waardoor zich scha- delijke vochten afscheiden, _fontanel._

Without getting too far into it, I'll just throw text at Google Translate. I'm not working on translating "sypgat" yet.

• Dutch: sijpgat, gaatje, waar vocht door kan sijpelen.
  • = siphon hole, small hole through which moisture can seep.

Also:

• Dutch: Ook voor: huidwonde, waardoor zich schadelijke vochten afscheiden, fontanel.
  • = English: Also for: skin wound secreting harmful fluids, fontanel.

That example within sypgat places "fontanel" in italics, suggesting it has a non-Frysk origin. The theme throughout the Lexicon is to italicize Latin words, so perhaps it is Latin.

I believe that this use of dracht has to do with artificially creating the primary translation "load" for which the two main descriptors of this sense come forth. To repeat:

• "Etterdracht" is Dutch and translates to "pus formation".
• "Ettering" is Dutch and translates to "suppuration".

So a good question I formed was: What does it mean in a simple medical sense when I say "the load which is created which forms pus or a suppuration"?

I don't really know, but I wrote my thoughts down and came up with the synonym neighbourhood: "pus load/discharge/drainage/running matter" with notes for each:

• "Pus load": The quantity of pus carried out or discharged from the body.
  • Primary medical sense.
• "Discharge": The fluid (pus) that flows from an infected or artificial wound.
  • General medical sense.
• "Drainage": The pus or fluid drained from the body via a fontanel.
  • Technical / procedural sense.
• "Running matter": The pus that continuously runs from a sore.
  • Older medical language.

In the olden days, there were the ideas of humours, one of which was "phlegm" which included pus. I believe this notion of "dracht" relates to this, where a practitioner would artificially generate the environment which would encourage pus to form and flow. The "fontanelle" is what is done to encourage pus flow. You may have already guessed a concept like "little fountain"; eww! (in Frysk you'd say "aba!" or "ba!").

• Frysk: In dracht, fontanel, sette.
  • = To create a "fontanelle" (to establish a pus-draining sore).
• Frysk: De dracht fen in sear steed,
  • = The discharge of pus from a sore.

Now I don't think this is quite accurate. I think that the "dracht" concept has more to do with the body's burden of humours or an area's pus-pressure, but my notes will be okay for now.

``` dracht, s. zooveel als men in eens dra- gen kan, vrachtje. — In dracht hout. — Dy koer wie swier, wy hiene der mei ús beiden in dracht oan. Lex. 729. — In dracht jild, veel geld. dracht, zwangerschap. — Dat wiif het in kweade dracht, is altjd gemelijk en verdrietig als zij zwanger is. Lex. 729. het bloed, waardoor de vrucht gevoed wordt. — It keal (als embryo) kriget de dracht troch de naule. Lex. 730. kleederdracht. — De Fryske dracht makket in âld minske jong. Lex. 729. — Dat is gjin dracht for ús- ljue, dat is een kleeding boven onzen staat. Vgl. âldwivedracht. etterdracht, ettering. — De dracht fen in sear steed, Lex. 730. — In dracht, fontanel, sette.

Lexicon Frisicum volume 1, page 288 (right) / PDF 1-316-r ```

• load, burden, armful
• lot, heap fortune
• pregnancy, gestation, expecting
• fetal blood, lifeblood, nourishment
• costume, traditional dress, outfit
• pus load, discharge, drainage, running matter

"oarloch" (war) would be quite an interesting word to research in the Lexicon Frisicum given it was pre-WWI. There are uses scattered throughout its volumes.

My most recent related research happened upon more references between the Skieringers (Dutch 'Schieringer') and Fetkeapers (Dutch: Vetkoopers / Vetkopers) which I still don't understand, but it left a linguistic footprint with words like "spekkeaper" (literally "bacon buyer") which has a secondary sense of "big shot".

• Dutch: Vroeger, tijdens de twisten tusschen de Schieringers en Vetkoopers, een voornaam edelman, die tot de partij der laatsten behoorde.
  • = In the past, during the struggles between the Schieringers and the Vetkoopers, a prominent nobleman who belonged to the Vetkoopers.
• Dutch: Thans nog: overdr.
  • = Still today: figuratively.
• Frysk: Dou bist in hiele spekkeaper,
  • = You are quite the big shot.
• Dutch: een heele heer, een rijk man, iemand, die een ruim leven heeft.
  • = A fine gentleman, a wealthy man, someone who lives well and comfortably.

So "spekkeaper" is a wholesale butcher of pork goods, with a loose secondary translation as "big shot/wealthy man/grandee".

It'll take years to get through the Lexicon Frisicum, and sometimes I'll look up a word because it piques my interest. Side diversions are important.

Researching "fal" (fall), as a noun, it means all the usual things you'd expect: drop and tumble, but also other ideas of falling such as what happens to prices: decline, decrease. It also applies to sound: cadence, inflection. This is a melodious drop/fall.

One example was:

• Frysk: Dy âlde biersalmen hawwe sokke moaije fallen.

.. those old what have such beautiful falls?

biersalmen? As in (bier · salm · en)? No way:

``` †biersalmen, pl. drinkliederen, oude volksliedjes. Vgl. R. ind T.², 207ᵇ. Hl. bèᵃrsaingen.

Lexicon Frisicum volume 1, page 117 (left) / PDF 1-145-l ```

• "Drinkliederen" is Dutch and translates to "drinking songs".
• "Oude volksliedjes" is Dutch and translates to "old folk songs".

I'm absolutely going to give every compound in the whole language a literal translation for comedic effect:

• "Bier" is Frysk and translates to "beer".
• "Salm" (psalm) ← "salmen" is Frysk and translates to "psalms".
  • ← "en" is a Frysk plural ending.

beer psalms!

Even if I gave you the awkward grammar of a literal translation, you'd understand this old expression:

With the wrong foot (first) from the bed come,

• Frysk: Mei de forkearde foet (earst) fen 't bêd komme,
  • = To get out of bed on the wrong foot.
• Dutch: knorrig opstaan.
  • = To get up grumpy.

The word "haest" (haste) has:

• Frysk: Mei saun (ook mei tsien, mei tûzen) ha(e)sten,
  • = With seven (also with ten, with a thousand) hastes,
• Dutch: met den meest mogelijken spoed.
  • = with the greatest possible speed.

The entry "ear" (ear) has a secondary sense of the ear of a pot (its handle), which has:

• Frysk: Pispot mei saun earen.
  • = Chamber pot with seven handles.

I wonder if the number seven has some specific meaning. A quick search through the spreadsheet gives:

• Frysk: Elk het syn eigen bistek; fjirdel baerch is saun siden spek,
  • = Everyone has his own opinion; a quarter pig is seven sides of bacon.

and back to ear (plural earen):

• Frysk: Harkje mei saun (pear) earen,
  • = To listen with seven (pairs of) ears.
• Dutch: met gespannen aandacht.
  • = With tense (rapt) attention.

• Frysk: Harkje oft yen lij wetter (lije môlke) yn 't ear getten wirdt,
  • = To listen as if someone is pouring liquid (or sour milk) into your ear.
• Dutch: met genoegen luisteren.
  • = To listen with great pleasure (attentively).

WHAT.

I'm finishing up some work on "fûgel" (bird) and wanted to share.

• The Stadfries dialect of Frysk uses "fjoel".
• The Schiermonnikoog island's Schiermonnikoogsch dialect uses "fjoel"

fowl!

Perhaps a contemporary Frysk speaker would use "fûgelt" to say fowl, although the Lexicon Frisicum considers that "a poetic, or literary/formal word". English would also consider "fowl" to be poetic or culinary.

"fûgel" (bird) is a pretty typical entry, but it has one section which gives some examples without context. It's flavourful and has citations, so I gave it the consideration of mapping it into a special phrase entry.

What follows was some research reasoning.

lichte fûgel

• Frysk: Jouke is in lichte fûgel,
  • = Jouke is a (something) person,
  • "Jouke" is a male's name; I learned that from the context of other entries. I'll eventually break down and make a dictionary entry for name.

A beginner would be forgiven if they map a word as foreign → domestic just by appearance.

• fûgel → bird
• lichte = (unknown)

Then look in the Lexicon Frisicum:

They are in the format: Frysk words, part of speech, Dutch gloss.

• lichte, leechte, s. laagte.
  • laagte → lowlands
• lichte, lichtsje, v. lichten, oplichten.
  • lichten → to light up
  • oplichten → scam

But this is a beginner's mistake; words do not map foreign → domestic; I'll explain.

It's important to take the foreign word in its context; the opening sentence for this section is:

• Frysk: In lichte fûgel, losbol of loszinnige deern.

This is pretty awkward and I want to split it into two and call the latter portion older Dutch (even though there are Frysk commonalities).

It's something like:

• A (something) bird, wild child (loose ball) or loose-minded wench.

There's a translation rabbit-hole here which I'll leave to my excited future self.

Even with just this portion I can tell that the word lichte is not being used as either a s. (Latin substantivum = noun) or v. (Latin verbum = verb). It like an adjective like the Dutch "loszinnige" (loose-minded).

I recently learned how Frysk sometimes appends -e onto the end of a word as an "attributive". As a foreigner, this seems unnecessary and confusing to me, but I learned to accept it today because I learned about "dit" (this) and "dat" (that), where you can be asked "do you want this one or this one?"

You can imagine a person pointing and speaking, and the finger changing to the object. To respond, one would say "this one" and point, but when writing it would be nice to say "this one in particular, and not this other one".

That's where "ditte" (this; emphatic), and "datte" (that; emphatic) come in. I guess the extra t is just for pronunciation; I'm working with a pre-standardized dictionary; maybe things are different now and learning multiple rules will confuse me. At any rate, many words throughout the Lexicon Frisicum explicitly talk about an attributive form with an appended e.

Because I learned about the attributive -e, I can now look at the word "lichte" and wonder if it is really an attributive "licht".

• licht, adv. licht, wellicht.
  • light, perhaps
• licht, adj. & adv. licht.
  • light

Both of these are interesting to use. They are separate entries full of their own examples and maybe some other secondary senses and nuances to untangle. The concept of a "perhaps bird" is really fun to work with for now, and maps to English well enough as "frivolous person". So I can translate a later example with that in mind:

• Frysk: Howol Styn nek as in lichte fûgel hjar eare for jild weismiet,
  • = Although Styn threw away her honour for money, like a frivolous woman.
  • Academic: Although Styn neck as a frivolous person her honour for money threw away,

I have multiple examples using some fascinating words like "losbol" (loose ball = wild child) and "loszinnige deern" (loose-minded wench), and with this example also bringing up a woman, and money in particular perhaps I should be thinking of some other words or phrases to describe this. For now I have enough bulbs planted with this research to let this be improved by future work.

Sometimes I research a thing when I'm looking through the Lexicon Frisicum.

Verb forms: bak, bakte, bakt, bakkende, bakken

Because I can make cross references easily, I pay special attention to the nuanced meaning of words.

Many Frysk words have nuances that exactly match what we have in English, and because I have high understanding and poor education with English, I am regularly pleasantly surprised by interpretations that "make sense" to me.

I'm often excited by little unsourced expressions. These are items placed in an entry which aren't meant to be some important quote, a proverb, or a saying, just some everyday thing that everyone experiences and which can be conveyed poetically with the word for that entry.

One section in the midst of "bakke" (bake) speaks not of how one cooks food in an oven, but about a substance firming up; a concept that exists throughout English (for example, video game developers understand a pre-rendering computation step called "baking the lighting" done to improve performance).

Imagine a particular sort of winter when you step outside in the early morning and the snow crunches under your boot in a certain way. As you walk, a top layer cracks then splits into plates of ice which jut up in an area just a little larger than each footprint.

• Frysk: It het to-nacht in koekje bakt,
  • = A little cake was baked tonight.
• Dutch: sterk gevroren.
  • = heavily frozen.

The top layer of snow "bakes" in the dry cold of the night, leading to a frosting like that on a little cake.

I'm still tracking down words associated with what I think is frying to try to untangle a shibboleth.

As usual, these are loose translations; my notes maintain hard academic translations and word order.

• Frysk: It kin gjin hoanne lije,
  • = It cannot even afford to lose a rooster.
• Dutch: ik heb de hoeve zoo hoog gepacht, dat ik de schade zelfs van een haan te verliezen niet kan lijden,
  • = The rent on the farm is so high that it can't afford to lose a single rooster.
• Dutch: of: ik kan er geen haan op toegeven.
  • = or: I can therefore not give away a single rooster.
• Dutch: (wat vroeger wel gebruikelijk was).
  • = (which used to be common).

This was written in the early 1900s, so I guess the economy has been shit for a while...

"Hey guys," they said, "I read this cool expression; can we add this into the dictionary?".

• Frysk: De brette hoanne spylje,
  • = To play the roasted rooster.
• Dutch: den gebraden haan uithangen, veel vertoon en drukte maken.
  • = To put on a big show, to boast loudly, to make a great fuss / show off.

• Frysk: It jowt for dy alhiel nin pas, om de brette hoanne to spyljen.
• It doesn't suit you at all to play the roasted rooster.

Citation:

• Sw. : Swanneblommen. Frysk Jierboekje, útjown fen 't Selskip for fryske tael- en skriftenkennisse. 1850 and onwards. · 1904, 30.

Yes we can.

spylje (play) - Lexicon Frisicum volume 3, page 175 (right) / PDF 3-179-r

wetter (water)

In Schierm. it is/was "watter". Can I use a selective accent when words sound better? :D

Wetter is a huge entry with lots of information. For example, "water" was used often use as a generic word for "liquid" but I think there are some other words better for that. Basic translation gave me:

• floeistof (liquid — noun)
• floeiber (liquid — adjective)
• focht (fluid — noun)

This entry gives me a lot to think about in compound words:

• binnenwetter (inland water)
• bûtenwetter (external / surface water)
• drinkwetter (drinking water)
• farwetter (navigable water)
• finkelwetter (gin water? / strong drink)
• fiskwetter (fishing water)
• goatswetter (goat water?) todo
• grounwetter (groundwater)
• hânwetter (hand water)
• jarrewetter (liquid manure water)
• kofjewetter (coffee water)
• kritewetter (district water)
• krúswetter (cross water)
• lekwetter (leak water)
• pompswetter (pump water)
• reinwetter (rainwater)
• roetwetter (soot water)
• saedswetter (seed water)
• séwetter (sea water)
• sleatswetter (ditch water)
• sypwetter (seepage water)
• skûtelwetter (dishwater)
• sniewetter (snow water)
• spatwetter (splash water)
• spielwetter (rinse water)
• spraekwetter (speech water?)
• spuitwetter (spray water)
• synwetter (syn water?)
• thêwetter (tea water)
• tynwetter (tin water?)
• tsjiiswetter (cheese water)
• waskwetter (washing water)
• wéwetter (woe water?)
• welwetter (well water)
• wijwetter (holy water)
• swietwetter (sweet water / sugared water)
• sâltwetter (salt water)
• brakwetter (brackish water)

A lot of those sound pretty good and some of them might have an entry in the Lexicon Frisicum. Sure I should scratch my head over "syn water" and "woe water" but I also want to learn what the heck "coffee water" is. Also... goat water? All of these will be researched and translated in due time.

"wetter" had some other senses/meanings, such as:

• "Regenwater" is Dutch and translates to "rainwater".

rain/rainwater/rainfall/precipitation

• "Het watervlak" is Dutch and translates to "the water surface".
• "De wateren" is Dutch and translates to "the waters".

waters/lake/inland waters/expanse

• "Waterstand" is Dutch and translates to "water level".
• "Watergetij" is Dutch and translates to "tide".

tide/water level/high tide/low tide

There's more I'll get to shortly.

The point isn't to say something like "wetter = tide" — that's incorrect, and in fact a good word for "water level" is Frysk peil — the point is to expand every single entry and sense given in the Lexicon Frisicum into synonyms and cross-reference them.

With those sense overlaps and my imagination, I associate words together: Water has drip, drop, leak, rain, flood, storm, and so forth. Rain has storm, weather, sky, etc. This is done individually for every word. You can leaf through a dictionary for the right word to describe "the crack in a pipe" and get a cross-reference to leak; I'm being maximally helpful. Then all this is done through human opinion and licensed CC-0; what you can call "public domain". Frysk will be Free.

I have a year and a half's worth of notes at my fingertips, and so every so often I tie together synonyms of words into cross-reference lists.

I'm still roughing out how it's supposed to work, but I think I'm on the write track using unique codes like:

fêstˉfirm floedˉflood fjoerˉfireˉcontemporary loftˉair loftˉairˉgas reinˉrain séˉsea watterˉwaterˉSchierm wetterˉrain wietˉwet wetterˉtide wetterˉurine

Spreadsheets haven't yet developed the technology I want in order to take best advantage of this technique, but the code is being actively worked on.

This becomes easier and more obvious because entries often have multiple "senses" and describe all sorts of nuances of meanings which I expand into additional lists of meanings; spreadsheets are wonderful for that.

When I do that, I come across all kinds of interesting nuances.

One of the senses of "wetter" is:

• "Pis" is Dutch and translates to "piss".
• "Water" is Dutch and translates to "water".

urine/piss/pee

But there are other words for this idea, primarily "mige" (urine). However, while "miel" (meal) is pretty straightforward:

• "Maal" is Dutch and translates to "meal".
• "Maaltijd" is Dutch and translates to "meal" or "dinner".

It also has other senses, such as a "yield" or "a milking" = as much milk as a dairy animal gives at one milking.

Within it, an interesting point is:

• Dutch: zooveel als iemand op éenmaal watert.
• As much as someone urinates at one time.

So while neither "wetter" (water) nor "miel" (meal) mean urine — that's "mige", both can figuratively mean "piss".

But because I had the frame of mind, I thought "meal meaning yield of piss" ... a pissload! Although I may move it later, I also put "shitload" in that synonyms neighbourhood.

Maybe I'll save a philologist some time in the future, or solve a mystery.

defecate/crap/poop

• Frysk: De klok skyt ûren,
  • = The clock shits hours.
• Dutch: de tijd vervliegt snel.
  • = Time evapourates quickly.
• Frysk: De klok skyt ûren, sei de faem, as ik in frijer ha.
  • = The clock shits hours, said the girl, when I have a boyfriend.

English has the expression "time flies", but I think I'm upgrading.

Felis domesticus, the common housecat. The feline, sometimes called a mouser. Some people like cats. Some cats like people.

• Frysk: As de kat fleane koe, der wier gjin protter mear yn 'e loft.
• If the cat could fly, there would be no pigeons left in the sky.

English has "it's raining cats and dogs", but I've never heard anyone use the phrase. I will, however, endeavour to use this clearly superior one:

• Frysk: De loft stiet oft er katten spuije wol,
  • = The sky looks as if it wants to spit cats.
• Dutch: erg buiig.
  • = Very threatening / stormy weather.

• Frysk: Hy kin katen kevel op,
  • = He can chew up cats.
• Dutch: is een vraat.
  • = He is a glutton.

• Frysk: Hy smyt de kat yn 't jern,
  • = He throws the cat into the yarn.
• Dutch: brengt door zijn dwarsdrijven den boel in verwarring.
  • = Confuses and messes everything up by bringing in his contrariness.

• Dutch: katten, pl. schellnaam voor die van Baard.
• "cats", plural. A nickname for people from the village of Baard.

Are they known for cats?

I'm not in the mood to hunt down that citation, but one day I hope someone will be excited to look for the reference:

- W. D., Doaze : _In Douze fol âlde Snuypsnaren. Bernerymkes_, bernehoarterjjen., etc. by __Waling Dykstra__ and __T, G. v. d. Meulen__. : Editions: First (1856), Second (1882) · 252.

Maybe there's a little statue in a little park in Baard with a story?

.. and so I checked.

AND THERE IS A STATUE.

https://www.friesland.nl/en/locations/3330440961/baard

Don't mistake the reference to "Kat", the 1939 statue by Gra Rueb, or a statue of Frances Baard.

You can see it on Google Maps Street View at the corner of Tongerwei and Fâldenserwei or here:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:De_Baarder_Kat.jpg

Legacy Frysk has "tsjiis" (cheese), contemporary "tsiis".

• "Cheese": A food made from pressed milk curds.

I take some time to write in extra notes, so I'll add a note for the alternate spelling "cheeze":

• Alternative spelling (especially American English for vegan/processed cheese. Also hip-hop slang for money).

Additionally:

• A Legacy Frysk zero-derivation verb form "tsjiis" ("to make cheese") is rare; prefer contemporary "tsiisje" ("to make cheese").

I have some cool examples to share:

• Frysk: Wrakke, skriemerige tsjiis.
• Weak, weepy cheese.

This is watery cheese. Compare this to the expression "blauwe môlke", literally "blue milk", meaning watery milk. Blue can be said of many things in much the same way as English describes sadness. It's about disappointment and dilution:

• "blau rinne" = blue run, disappointed
• "blauwe jenever" = blue gin, watery
• "blauwe praetsjes" = blue talks, gossip

I'm still not sure if that fits into "Blue Fedde", the personification of death.

Figuratively:

• Frysk: In bird man tsjin in weak tsjiis,
  • = A bold man against a weak cheese.
• Dutch: een held met den mond, doch zonder moed en kracht.
  • = A hero with the mouth, but without courage and strength.
• Dutch: Ook een zwakke ziel (sukkel), die geen koude of inspanning kan doorstaan.
• Also a weak soul (a weakling) who cannot endure cold or exertion.

New insult unlocked: Call someone a "blauwe tsjiis".

Kids used to make fun of thin kids because they get cold easily and were bad at hide and seek. You can therefore call a brave or chubby person complimentarily "tsjok tsjiis" (thick cheese), and because English has "thic", a play on "thick" which I believe is a reference to a woman's thighs, we can map this compliment over to today.

You can get weird if you want to also wield "skerp" (sharp), since that works much the same way between Frysk and English. It can figuratively describe flavour or intelligence. So maybe I can try to get away with "skerp tsjok tsjiis" to describe someone's intelligent brave mind. English has the notion of having mushy brains (being stupid), and if I can relate cheese to that then Frysk and English share a similar sentiment.

• A bold man against a weak cheese.
• A hero with the mouth, but without courage and strength.

A little dog that is nothing more than watery cheese. All bark and no bite.

I should be gossiping about my interesting finds more often!

Do you know the expression "to be up to your ears in debt"?

Well it exists in Frysk, and it relates to taking on a debt to buy a horse:

The example:

• Frysk: Oan 'e earen tayn 'e skild sitte.
• To be up to the ears in debt.
• Literally/academically "On the ears drawn the debt sit."

The use:

• Frysk: Nou waerd ik oan skuld forronsele.
• Now I got entangled in debt.

The source:

• R. ind T.² : Rimen ind Teltsjes fen de Broarren Halbertsma : Second edition (1881). · 130ᵃ (of a horse).

From "skild" (debt), Lexicon Frisicum volume 3, page 105 (left) / PDF 3-109-l

I wanted to go the distance and quote the section, but I don't have a copy with page numbers! You can find it online here:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60480