spuit elf

== Dutch == === Alternative forms === spuitelf === Etymology === Uncertain. Literally, “hose eleven”; referring to the eleventh fire company. Querido glosses it as “mud hose”, compare spuit elf geeft ook modder, but why “eleven” is linked to “mud” is unclear. Hypotheses include: from the concept of 11 as a crazy or incomplete number, not quite a dozen (cf. gekkengetal); from an old firefighting figure of speech: by the time the eleventh fire hose arrives at the scene of a fire, the canal from which the fire brigade was drawing water may have only mud remaining. Sometimes pronounced as if it is interpreted as a compound of spuit (“hose; syringe”) or spuiten (“to spray, to spund; to inject”) and elf (“eleven; elf, fae”). === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /spœy̯t ˈɛlf/ (reinterpreted pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈspœy̯t.ɛlf/ === Noun === spuit elf f (plural spuit elven, no diminutive) (Netherlands) a nobody who is late in commenting or catching up, often one whose comment is ignorant or irrelevant 1925, Israël Querido, "Mooie Karel", in De Jordaan. Amsterdamsch epos, part 4, Scheltens & Giltay (6th ed., first ed. 1924), page 435. ==== Related terms ==== spuit elf geeft ook modder === Further reading === “Spuit elf geeft (ook nog) modder”, in taaladvies.net‎[1] (in Dutch), 2004 “Spuit elf geeft ook modder”, in Onze Taal‎[2] (in Dutch), 2016, archived from the original on 26 March 2022