InDefinition - 69

Oranjeboom, n. - Dutch for 'chemical defoliant'

Books I've actually finished lately: 5

NB, though:

A national way of life strongly imbued with such Calvinist virtues as propriety, dutifulness, and moral vigilance has not conduced to boldness of thought.

- JM Coetzee

I am indebted

to Jonathan Grimwood's The Last Banquet for the knowledge that 'condom' was not only (once?) rendered into French as 'redingotes Anglaise', but also that this was itself a wilful mis-'translation' of the English 'riding coats' - an actual fashion item at the time.

Likewise - if rather less exotically - to JM Coetzee('s translation of 'Basho', by Cees Nooteboom) for the fact that 'door' in Dutch translates as 'through' in English.

Well... obv.

'Conkers'

A word that should be Dutch. But isn't.

Avast!

I am grateful to today's Times2 crossword for the (safely verified) knowledge that 'avast!' was not just some crazy shit that pirates used to say - or Captain Haddock when he got battered [does that joke work in French?] - but is in fact a legitimate nautical term, the equivalent of 'halt!'

From the Dutch, houd vast/hold fast. A complicated language, the Dutch.