{"id":21142,"date":"2021-07-07T12:03:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T12:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=21142"},"modified":"2021-07-07T12:03:45","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T12:03:45","slug":"knickknacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=21142","title":{"rendered":"Knickknacks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An interesting Dutch word I learnt yesterday is <strong>liflafjes<\/strong> [\u02c8l\u026af.l\u0251f.j\u0259s], which<br \/>\nmeans scraps, trimmings, leftovers or knickknacks [<a href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.reverso.net\/dutch-english\/Liflafjes\">source<\/a>]. The singular version, <strong>liflafje<\/strong>, apparently means &#8220;a small meal that fails to fill&#8221; or &#8220;a trifle&#8221; and is a diminutive of <strong>liflaf<\/strong>, which means insipid food, insipid text(s) or bland writing, and used to mean insipid or tasteless  [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/liflafje#Dutch\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tim_ellis\/5483442520\/in\/photolist-9my5qq-oG24Lb-toAPd-Va5Scv-dGSKFe-25p1nHf-dKZCQm-hw6w3U-7xyeUj-VkNX-cxo6nE-cxnQeC-TAv5op-cxoUVG-cxnTwy-dGXQHm-o24Sdh-xLUJAf-DuJbZJ-2d2x-92mFMe-y4wpJp-92pMQQ-A49BjH-92pNDE-8qhZrU-CRiH-9A4y3U-CRnC-Kdq42k-92mGqa-92pNiQ-L9UzPe-92pNmQ-92mFrt-55wRSV-2kQEaNb-92pN1j-2wNwYj-92mG6B-92pMMG-92pMM9-92pMLq-92mFpn-92pN9b-2hzeF6X-92pNbQ-aMcnEv-92mF3V-iKBkLn\" title=\"Knick-Knack\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/5132\/5483442520_9b2a8f12ec_z.jpg\" alt=\"Knick-Knack\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/webwoordenboek.nl\/liflaf\">webwoordenboek.nl<\/a>, <strong>liflaf<\/strong> means &#8220;een smakelijk maar weinig voedzaam gerechtje&#8221; (a tasty but not very nutritious dish), or &#8220;een aardig maar overbodig iets&#8221; (a nice but unnecessary thing).<\/p>\n<p>These words come from <strong>liflaffen<\/strong>, a dated word that&#8217;s used mainly in Belgium to mean to grovel, fawn, flatter, caress or fondle. A related word is <strong>liflafferij<\/strong> [\u02ccl\u026af.l\u0251.f\u0259\u02c8r\u025bi\u032f], which means flattery or sweet-talking [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/liflaffen#Dutch\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>A <strong>knick(-)knack<\/strong> is a small ornament of minor value, a trinket or bauble. It is a reduplication of <strong>knack<\/strong> (aptness, petty contrivance, trick), which possibly comes from the Middle English <em>krak<\/em> (a sharp blow). An equivalent in Dutch is <strong>snuisterij<\/strong>  [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/knick-knack#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>A <strong>mishmash<\/strong> is a collection containing a variety of miscellaneous things. It is a reduplication of <strong>mash<\/strong>. Some synonyms include hodgepodge, melange, mingle-mangle, oddments and odds and ends. Do you have any others? An equivalent in Dutch is <strong>mikmak<\/strong> [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/knick-knack#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An interesting Dutch word I learnt yesterday is liflafjes [\u02c8l\u026af.l\u0251f.j\u0259s], which means scraps, trimmings, leftovers or knickknacks [source]. The singular version, liflafje, apparently means &#8220;a small meal that fails to fill&#8221; or &#8220;a trifle&#8221; and is a diminutive of liflaf, which means insipid food, insipid text(s) or bland writing, and used to mean insipid or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102,104,107,10,26,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dutch","category-english","category-etymology","category-language","category-middle-english","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21142","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=21142"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21152,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21142\/revisions\/21152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}