winter [de winter, de winters]
Winters in the Netherlands are not what they used to be. Biking to work during winter poses no difficulties anymore: the joys of fingers freezing off, sore lips and the slipping away due to snowy and icy roads are gone…
Of course this is not regretted by everyone, but what is remarkable is that we are entering an era in which typical Dutch "winter words" are not used anymore, hence disappearing from, or even never entering, the vocabulary of today’s youth (see ‘Extra’).
Examples:
1. "Alhoewel je het niet zou zeggen, is het toch echt winter!"
("Even though you wouldn’t say so, it is really winter!")
2. "Het huidige Nederlandse winterweer stelt niets meer voor!"
("The current Dutch winter weather is nothing like it anymore!")
3. "Vroeger konden we in de winter nog schaatsen, maar nu sneeuwt het zelfs niet eens meer!"
("In the past we were able to skate in the winter, but now it does not even snow anymore!")
Related words:
1. "Sneeuw": snow.
2. "IJs": ice.
3. "Erwtensoep met worst": peasoup with saucage (traditionally served in winter time, or at food stalls near the ice).
4. "Wak": hole in the ice.
5. "IJsje piepen": the act of walking on the ice while it is not safe enough yet.
6. "Sleeën": to sled(ge).
Extra:
A Dutch columnist recently wrote a column about how he foresees typical winter related words to disappear from common Dutch vocabulary. Although words like "schaatsen" ("to skate" or "skates") and "sneeuw" ("snow") will obviously never disappear, a word like "wak" ("hole in the ice") might. Generations of Dutch mothers have warned their children for "wakken" when the children went skating, or not to go on the ice at all if it hadn’t been freezing enough. Of course "ijsje piepen" was strictly forbidden! Since there seems to be no reason anymore to include these words in daily conversation, they might as well just disappear…
The word "winter" appeared earlier in DWOTD "106. Kort".