Woord van de dag : eenvoudig

I've had today's word of the day rolling and lolling around my head for some time. It just seems so pleasant to say! Unfortunately it's not as simple to say as its meaning….

Eenvoudig (niet ingewikkeld)
means simple, straightforward (not complicated).

And if you are learning Dutch then here's a place you can go for 'eenvoudig Nederlands', taalblad.be

"TAALBLAD.BE is een e-zine met dagelijkse actualiteit, geschreven in het Nederlands, maar voor anderstaligen (that's me)".

Can't quite work out from the etymology if this word is made up of een (one), voud (fold) ig (y). Any ideas, please comment!

Woord van de dag: rouwen

What will I do tonight (or in Dutch translation 'What shall I tonight to do?)?

Let's check out the free newspaper available in the metro, called Metro.

Aha!... films.

Ooh, 'Gravity'. It's had good reviews…hmmm.

Oh. I can understand most of this in Dutch (glows).

Hang on. What the…. ? "Zij rouwt"…!? (confused look)

Must be the verb 'rouwen'. Is it similar to an English verb? (thinks….)

Nope. Gonna have to look it up.

Rouwen: 'to mourn'

Etymologie of rouwen in Dutch: Proto Germanic 'hrewwana'.
Cognate with Old English 'hreowan' from whence 'rue' a little used word for 'sorrow' (for example, "He rued the day…").

The etymology of mourn is from the PIE root mer- (to remember).

Sounds like a fun film!

Keeping the Christmas Turkey Safe

I had a problem with the turkey the other day.

I bought a lovely turkey crown for our Christmas celebrations and was well pleased with it. The only trouble was that upon returning home I noticed that the sell by date ('Te Gebruiken tot…') was marked as BEFORE Christmas day! Doh…

As I was inspecting the packaging to see if I was somehow mistaken I also noticed 'Koel bewaren' and noticed the similarity of bewaren to beware in English.

Related? I investigated.

Dutch:
bewaren : keep, save, preserve, conserve, guard.

English:
beware : be cautious and alert to the dangers of.

Not exactly the same but deserves more looking into.

English etymology:
(from wary) 1550s, from O.E. wær "prudent, aware, alert, wary," from P.Gmc. *waraz (cf. O.N. varr "attentive," Goth. wars "cautious," O.S. giwar, M.Du. gheware, O.H.G. giwar, Ger. gewahr "aware"), from PIE root *wer- "to cover" (see weir). Related: Warily; wariness.

Dutch etymology:
Onl. beuuarun ‘het oog houden op’ [10e eeuw; W.Ps.]; mnl. bewaren ‘letten op, beschermen, handhaven’

('keep an eye on' [10th century]; Keep 'watch, protect, enforce')

This brings these two words more in line and with even more searching I find that, just as in English, bewaren in Dutch is made up from two words. In Dutch 'waren' (cf. wary) which meant ‘zorgen voor, bewaken’ (care for, guard).

But beware! Although these two words have similar etymology they mean different things now. The process of investigating really helps me retain a word in my head, even if finally their meanings are not exactly the same.