Re: English oddities

On Thu, 13 Jul 2000, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:

> Schoon can mean beautiful in Dutch, too. Especially in Belgium. I
> remember a barmaid saying to my mother 'Ge hebt schone kindekes,
> mevrouw.' In standard Dutch the meaning is restricted to set situations
> 'schone jonkvrouwe'.
I call my daughters "schone maagd" when they come out of the bath: it
can mean "fair maiden" as well as "clean girl". Well, actually,
"clean virgin"; and when they ask what a "maagd" is I tell them, in
the words of a folk song, "een mooi meisje zonder man" (a pretty girl
without a husband). All of these things, of course, are true :-)

   Irina

--
           Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
irina@valdyas.org (myself)     http://www.valdyas.org/irina/valdyas