{"id":21129,"date":"2021-06-30T16:37:46","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T16:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=21129"},"modified":"2021-07-01T20:23:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-01T20:23:20","slug":"snoring-fits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=21129","title":{"rendered":"Snoring Fits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I came across an interesting Dutch word today &#8211; <strong>snorfiets<\/strong> [sn\u0254rfits], which sounds like &#8216;snore fits&#8217;, and means a moped or scooter, particularly one limited to a maximum speed of 25 km\/h (15.5 mph) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/snorfiets#Dutch\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/pfoekens\/4877193078\/in\/photolist-8qYTzQ-J85cSL-2gm896N-T4Ncjy-6KDsdK-6KDsEZ-28UYj3E-Uvt6fC-5j1bsH-5rs6zm-Pmwrrj-AJHh1B-553rgZ-cjpTA1-GH4v6L-QstF86-hmvuGM-8DkDTa-5oRWKF-7CjJpP-7pQcBZ-6kLJv9-9uR2VA-8tQzkp-578fNa-VdW7N7-6KDtUi-bxTaEL-6LPwxt-578fFp-a9GHNi-c3zVpC-9eGodo-6xijY1-dqF5g7-9cA5XY-f3TMv5-GYYdx1-8nR9cQ-57pKY1-5oW34g-aPgNap-9jVPbL-7pQcsg-9jSK2F-9jSJHP-9jVNUj-2dPdzha-JcDnE7-7pQgbx\" title=\"Jawa Snorfiets\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/4081\/4877193078_b19c8b8526_z.jpg\" alt=\"Jawa Snorfiets\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Snor<\/strong> [sn\u0254r] on its own means mustache or whiskers, and when I saw <strong>snorfiets<\/strong> I thought it maybe referred to a bicycle with mustache-shaped handlebars, or some other mustache-shaped parts. In fact it comes from <strong>snorren<\/strong> (to hum, roar, purr, whirr).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fiets<\/strong> [fits] means bicycle, and its origins are uncertain. It may be named after Elie Cornelis Viets, a wheelwright from Wageningen who made and repaired bicycles from 1880. It may be an abbreviation of a Dutch version of the French word <strong>velocip\u00e8de<\/strong>, or it might come from <strong>vietse\/fiette<\/strong>, Limburg and East Brabant dialect words meaning &#8216;to run fast or move quickly&#8217;, or from the older dialect word <strong>vietsen<\/strong> (to move quickly). The last exclamation is thought to be the most likely [<a href=\"https:\/\/nl.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fiets#Etymologie\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Bicycles, or <strong>fietsen<\/strong>, are quite popular in the Netherlands, so much so that there are more bikes than people there. According to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brusselstimes.com\/news\/world-all-news\/137389\/the-dutch-cycle-the-most-in-the-world\/\">article in The Brussels Times<\/a>, in 2018 there were an estimated 22.9 million bicycles in the Netherlands, and just 17.2 million people, or 1.3 bicycles per person.<\/p>\n<p>Other types of <strong>fiets<\/strong> include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>bakfiets = cargo bike, freight bike<\/li>\n<li>bierfiets = a party bike, beer bike &#8211; a pedal-powered road vehicle with a bar counter, multiple seats and a beer tap, so that the riders can drink while riding<\/li>\n<li>bromfiets = moped<\/li>\n<li>ligfiets = recumbent bike<\/li>\n<li>motorfiets = motorbike<\/li>\n<li>omafiets = roadster bike (&#8220;grandma bike&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>racefiets = racing\/road bike<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I came across an interesting Dutch word today &#8211; snorfiets [sn\u0254rfits], which sounds like &#8216;snore fits&#8217;, and means a moped or scooter, particularly one limited to a maximum speed of 25 km\/h (15.5 mph) [source]. Snor [sn\u0254r] on its own means mustache or whiskers, and when I saw snorfiets I thought it maybe referred to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,104,107,111,10,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dutch","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-language","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21129"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21137,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21129\/revisions\/21137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}