te elfder ure

Dutch

Alternative forms

• ter elfder ure (unofficial)

Etymology

Referring to the parable of the workers in the vineyard in Matthew 20. The term employs the now archaic dative case, lost in present-day Dutch except for a few idioms.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tə ˌɛlfdər ˈyːrə/

• Audio:

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

te elfder ure

1. at the eleventh hour (at the last minute; at a time close to the end or almost too late)

Usage notes

Te elfder ure is the official form, which is now more common than ter elfder ure, but the latter form is the more common one in older sources. The Statenvertaling of 1637 has ter elfder uyre.

References

• Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal, 1995, entry te elfder ure (Word list of the Dutch language), website of Onze Taal.
• Statenvertaling 1637, Matthew 20:9: "Ende als’se quamen die ter elfder uyre [gehuert waren] ontfingen sy een yeder eenen penninck." ("And when those came who [were hired] about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius.")