spuit elf geeft ook modder

Dutch

Alternative forms

  • spuit elf geeft modder

Etymology

Literally, “hose eleven gives mud, too”. The origin of the phrase 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.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /spœy̯t ˈɛlf xeːft ˈoːk ˈmɔdər/

Phrase

spuit elf geeft ook modder

  1. (Netherlands, derogatory) Indicating that a nobody (an irrelevant person) has given a belated, often irrelevant or ignorant, comment.

Further reading

  • “Spuit elf geeft (ook nog) modder”, in taaladvies.net (in Dutch), 2004
  • “Spuit elf geeft ook modder”, in Onze Taal (in Dutch), 2016, archived from the original on 26 March 2022
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