Eren

to honour
[verb]
[e-ren, eer-de, ge-ëerd]

Examples:
- "De militair werd geëerd voor zijn heldhaftig optreden."
("The soldier was honoured for his heroic actions.")

- "Laten we de doden eren door het leven te vieren ."
("Let’s honour the dead by celebrating life.")

- "De koning van Hispanje heb ik altijd geëerd."
("The king of Spain I have always honoured." This line is taken from the Dutch anthem and yes, it is weird that we have always honoured the king of Spain Note that the modern translation of Spain is "Spanje".)

Expressions:
- "Ere wie ere toekomt": give credit where credit is
due.
- "Die/Wie het kleine niet eert, is het grote niet weert": this saying says something like "if you are not happy with something small, you do not deserve something big".

Related words:
- Eer: honour [noun] [de eer, <no plural>].
- Vereren: to worship [verb] [vereerde, vereerd].
- Eerbetoon: tribute, homage [noun] [het eerbetoon, <no plural>].
- Eerbied: esteem, respect [noun] [de eerbied, <no plural>].
- Eerwraak: honour killing, blood revenge [noun] [de wraak, <no plural>].
- Herdenken: to commemorate [verb] [herdacht, herdacht].
- Onderscheiding: distinction, award [noun] [de onderscheiding, de onderscheidingen].

3 thoughts on “Eren”

Warm thanks for your wonderful blog – I’m learning a great deal here. The expressions are particularly useful. I realize that expressions do not always translate directly, but I also try to remember them by understanding individual words – their often idiosyncratic usages make them easier to learn. Meanwhile, in the following expression from today (July 8) I cannot identify in any dictionary the word “weert” (clearly I am not able to identify its root):
“Die/Wie het kleine niet eert, is het grote niet weert”: this saying says something like “if you are not happy with something small, you do not deserve something big”.
Might you comment on this?
With thanks, a grateful reader.

Reply ↓

Hi Ann,
My first response would be that ‘weert’ is old-Dutch for ‘waard’, in which case ‘is het grote niet weert’ translates to ‘is not worhty of the big (things)’.
How ‘weert’ became ‘waard’ I would have to research
Hope this helps,
Sander