Are you completely out of your mind?

6x insulting in a fun way

Yesterday I heard a journalist from Quest on the radio talking about old-fashioned expressions we use that no longer fit the new world at all. Having someone on the line, hanging up the phone, dialing someone's number... All come from the Stone Age. You know, back when we still had Bakelite phones. With rotary dials and a cord that always got tangled.

Even though it has little to do with the here and now, I love old-fashioned expressions. An insult sounds just a bit more poetic when it dates back a century. That's why I'm giving you my six favorite insults. With a touch of the last century.

1. Are you completely belatafeld?

Onze Taal says it is probably a corruption of ‘are you cheated’, where cheated refers to lazarus which in turn refers to Lazarus, a biblical figure who had leprosy, a feared contagious disease.

2. Are you bekotebikkerd?

A new favorite of mine. Koten and bikkelen were both children's games. It says in a way that you are childish. Another explanation is that there was a Rotterdam tough guy named Kotebikker and bekotebikkerd stands for: are you being a tough guy?

3. Are you sprayed?

What they mean by this is not entirely clear. Perhaps they mean: have you been sprayed and thus been tricked. And this retro expression, according to Onze Taal, comes from falconers. Falcons do not return to their cage on their own when they are released. They need to be lured back. This is done with a loer: a leather pouch filled with sand with a long strap attached. A piece of meat is attached to the pouch. Falcons only eat live prey, and the falconer must give the bird the impression that the ‘prey’ is still alive. Therefore, he spins the loer around at the moment the bird comes flying in. The falconer tricks the falcon with a fake prey. Anyway.

4. Are you completely krankjorum?

Krank comes from the German ‘krank’, which means sick. Jorum comes from ‘in de lorum’, which comes from delirium.

5. Are you out of your mind?

Babies (this by the way, is something no one knows about babies and childbirth) sit on pots, so if you are out of the pot, you are behaving like a small child.

6. Are you beseibeld?

Jewish that refers back to the Jewish ‘zeibel’, which stands for mess or muck.

So, now let's hope someone in your vicinity says or does something strange, then you can pull your super retro funny response out of your sleeve. Oh, and that comes from...