jongen

jongen¹ boy

Pronunciation

• /ˈjɔ.ŋə(n)/^[1]

Forms

jongen m (plural jongens, diminutive jongetje n)^[1] Older plurals are jongers and jongeren, used in the States Bible.^[2] Besides jongetje the diminutives jongentje and jongske are found.^[2]

Etymology

The noun is inherited from Middle Dutch jonghe (“youth, young man”), the weak form of the adjective jong used as a noun.^[3][4][5] The adjective goes back to Proto-Germanic *jungaz (“young”).^[3][1] The ending ⟨-en⟩ of the oblique cases was later taken into the nominative, and Kiliaan still gives both forms; the old form survives in the diminutive jongetje.^[3][2][4] In the same way Old High German jungo gave modern German Junge, and West Frisian jonge is the same.^[3][5]

Van Haeringen notes that ⟨jonge⟩ lives on in much of the language area, and that the North Holland form ⟨joon⟩ shows that ⟨jongen⟩ was really spoken, not only written.^[6] Vercoullie took the word for a derivative with an ⟨-n⟩ suffix, like jungino.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle Dutch jonghe as a noun is recorded in 1300–1325, in a line about the youth who sins through excess.^[3] The form jongen is first dated 1479.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

In a dictionary of 1573 een ionge, oft ioncksken translates French garçon.^[2] In the plural the word could mean children of either sex, as in vort, jongens! “off you go, children!” (1840), and in the south young people of both sexes.^[2] Jongens is still a familiar way to address a group, and men use jongen to each other.^[1]

Jongens van Jan de Witt “tough fellows” has nothing to do with the statesman Johan de Witt;^[9] Van Veen and Van der Sijs connect it with Johann von Werth, a soldier of the Thirty Years' War who rose to field marshal.^[9] Stoett explains een bengel van een jongen, where bengel “cudgel” came to mean a rascal.^[10]

The noun was borrowed into Indonesian as jongos “servant”, into Malay, Javanese and Sranan Tongo (yongu).^[1]

Timeline

• 1300–1325 – Middle Dutch jonghe “young man”.^[3]
• 1479 – The form jongen is recorded.^[8][9]
• 1573 – Een ionge, oft ioncksken translates French garçon.^[2]
• 1599 – Kiliaan gives both jonghe and jonghen.^[3]
• 1840 – Vort, jongens! addresses children.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A boy, a male child.^[11][1]
2. (informal) A man, a fellow: hij is een aardige jongen.^[11][1]
3. (in the plural, vocative) Guys, folks: a way to address a group.^[1][2]
4. (familiar) A boy servant or an apprentice.^[1]
5. (dated) A friend, a sweetheart.^[11]

Word family

• jongetje
• jongens
• jongensachtig
• jongensboek
• kwajongen
• tjonge
• loopjongen
• straatjongen
• boerenjongen

jongen² to give birth to young

Pronunciation

• /ˈjɔ.ŋə(n)/^[1]

Forms

jongen^[1]

Etymology

The verb is from Dutch jong + -en, formed from the noun jong “young animal”.^[2][1] The same verb is Middle Low German jungen (“to have young”) and German jungen, recorded in the Vocabularius theutonicus of 1482.^[5][4][12] Middle High German jungen meant only “to become young”, and the Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek infers a Middle Dutch jongen (“to become young”) from verjongen.^[4][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kiliaan records jonghen “to give birth to young” in 1588, as a synonym of worpen.^[2][12][5]

Semantic evolution

The verb is mostly used of mammals; in 1621 it was used of a kingfisher sitting on eggs, and in coarse speech of a woman (1699).^[2] Figuratively, money that bears interest jongt (1898), and in Flanders a thunderstorm that gathers on the horizon is said to jongen.^[2]

Timeline

• 1588 – Kiliaan records jonghen “to have young”.^[2][12]
• 1621 – The verb is used of a brooding kingfisher.^[2]
• 1898 – Money is said to mate and jongen.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of animals: to give birth to young, to whelp, to litter.^[11][1]
2. (figuratively) To multiply, to grow.^[1][2]

Word family

• aanjongen
• uitjongen