beemd

Dutch

FWOTD – 24 November 2024

Etymology

From Middle Dutch beemt, bempt (13th century). Cognate with Limburgish baandj, Ripuarian Bänd (both roughly “hayfield, wet meadow, floodplain”). Thought to be derived from an underlying Middle Dutch *banmade (“communal hayfield”), from ban (“jurisdiction”) + made (“meadow”), respectively from Proto-Germanic *bannaz and *mēdwō. The uncontracted form is possibly attested in the medieval placename Langobanomothe (also Langbanemente, Langebamet) near Xanten.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beːmt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: beemd
• Rhymes: -eːmt

Noun

beemd m (plural beemden, diminutive beemdje n)

1. low-lying pasture or meadow near water, e.g. a floodplain or a grassy polder

   Hypernyms: grasland, laagland, weiland

   • 1974, Thijs van Leer & Jan Akkerman, "Hamburger Concerto", Focus, Hamburger Concerto, quoting Vondel, "O, Kerstnacht schoner dan de dagen".

     Hij tracht d' onnozelen te vernielen / Door het doden van onnozele zielen / En wekt een stad en landgeschrei / In Bethlehem en op den akker / En maakt den geest van Rachel wakker / Die waren gaat door beemd en wei

     He tries to exterminate the innocent / by killing innocent souls / and rouses weeping in town and country / in Bethlehem and on the field / and awakens the ghost of Rachel / who begins to haunt through moor and pasture

Derived terms

• Beemdenbuurt
• beemdgras
• beemdhaver
• Beemdkant
• beemdkroon
• beemdlangbloem
• beemdooievaarsbek
• Beemster
• Dommelbeemd
• Genderbeemd
• Haagse Beemden
• Keersopperbeemden
• Klingbemden
• Maasband
• Stuksbeemden

Further reading

• beemd on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^nl