Favourite ‘Dutch’ word for 2007 is ‘Bokitoproof’
Language fans chose the Dunglish ‘Bokitoproof’, which indicates that a zoo is gorilla-proof, as the Word of the Year 2007. For those who missed the commotion, Bokito was the gorilla that ran amok in a Dutch zoo in Rotterdam earlier this year. It beat out perfectly good Dutch neologisms such as ‘comadrinken’ (drinking yourself into a coma), ‘klimaatneutraal’ (neutral for the environment), ‘slurptaks’ (tax on gas/petrol guzzling cars) en ‘lokhomo’ (gay bait).
The voting for ‘Woord van het jaar 2007’ was organised by newspaper De Pers, het Genootschap Onze Taal (linguistic association) and the Van Dale dictionary. Some 10,000 people voted and ‘Bokitoproof’ got 19% of the votes.
Another known Dunglish expression with the word ‘proof’ in it was ‘Rabo proof’, with a space, which is apparently wrong in Dutch.
(Link: Telegraaf)
Tags: Bokito, gorilla, word of the year, zoo
December 20th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Another dunglish term is:
Hufterproof
It is used in construction to point out that something is sturdy enough to withstand vandalism.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
see also:
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hufterproof
December 20th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Yup, knew that. Vandaal-proof, etc.
Is is still ‘waterbestendig’ and not ‘waterproof’ in Dutch.
December 20th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
I’m very much an amateur, but I love this site.
And that said, the use of Bokitoproof to describe a zoo that is NOT gorilla proof would seem to be doubly wrong unless “isn’t” is a typo in your text.
December 20th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Gotcha, thanks!
December 21st, 2007 at 10:05 am
Dat het inmiddels steeds populairder gaat worden om snel op een hype in te haken blijkt wel weer. Zojuist door een partner gestart: bokitoproof, reltoerist en andere woorden van het jaar op shirt verkrijgbaar:
http://woordvanhetjaar.spreadshirt.net
December 21st, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Zolang Bokito nog niet ingezet wordt als lokhomo vind ik, geheel klimaatneutraal, alles best…
December 21st, 2007 at 10:40 pm
Funny guy 🙂
January 10th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
> “It beat out perfectly good Dutch neologisms such as ‘comadrinken’, ‘klimaatneutraal’, ’slurptaks’ en ‘lokhomo’.”
that is a Dunglish sentence. Is it so difficult for Dutch people to leave out these small Dutch words from English sentences? 😛