280. Billenknijper

bottom pincher/squeezer [noun] [de billenknijper, de billenknijpers] [‘bi-lun-knij-pur’]

Billenknijper_1Today’s DWOTD is inspired by a news article that appeared on a Dutch news internet site (www.nu.nl). Amongst other people that were arrested during the "Leids ontzet" celebration (see DWOTD 279. Ontzet) there was a "billenknijper".
This word is a typical illustration of the compound form that allows you to create arbitrarily long words in Dutch. In this case it consists of "billen" ("buttocks/bottom") and "knijper" ("somebody who pinches / squeezes") derived from the verb "knijpen": to pinch, to squeeze.

Examples:
– "<krantenkop:> Baldadige billenknijper aangehouden bij Leidens Ontzet."
("<newspaper headline:> Rowdy bottom squeezer arrested during "Leidens Ontzet"." Actually "aanhouden" means "to stop somebody", but it is commonly used for "to arrest".)

– "Tijdens drukte is de kans op een billenknijper groter door de anonimiteit van de massa."
("During commotion the probability of a bottom squeezer (being active) is bigger due to the anonimity of the masses." In this context "drukte" generally translates to "crowds of people".)

Related words:
– "Bil": buttock, cheek.
– "Knijpen": to pinch, to squeeze.
– "Knijper": (clothes) peg/pin, or somebody who pinches/squeezes.

Extra:
A word that looks very similar but means something totally different is "ballenknijper". This word literally translates to "balls pincher" and is used to describe the tight male swim wear that looks like underwear ("speedos") and that middle aged Dutch men tend to wear (it is apparantly also mandatory swim wear in French swimming pools).

2 thoughts on “280. Billenknijper

  1. Leuk but what does it mean? Is it like in English “annally retentive”? If is person is referred to as “billenknijper” is this bad, strange, vulger, or that he’s going around grabbing everyone’s “rear-ends”?
    BTW this page is really great!

  2. Hi Ashley, we mean the latter, i.e. a “billenknijper” is somebody who goes around and grabs/squeezes/pinches “rear-ends”. De facto the “billenknijpers” are male, and the “rear-ends” belong to females…
    Sander

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