scharrelen
Dutch
Etymology
From scharren (“to scrape”, now archaic) + -elen (frequentative suffix).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsxɑ.rə.lə(n)/
Audio: (file) - Rhymes: -ɑrələn
Verb
scharrelen
- (of chickens) to walk around scratching the soil to forage for food
- to move around clumsily, especially on ice skates
- to perform various small activities around the place; to mess around, to potter
- to piece together, to gather from scattered bits and pieces, scavenge, make a living with difficulty
- (informal) to have casual sex
Usage notes
Many senses of the word are figurative meanings that implied "to act as a foraging chicken".
In compound words, scharrel- commonly acts as a pseudo-prefix meaning "free-range". This is most commonly used with regard to chickens, e.g. scharrelkip (“free-range chicken”) and scharrelei (“free-range egg”), but by extension it is also sometimes used for non-chickens, both literally and figuratively. E.g. a scharrelvarken is a free-range pig, a scharrelboom (“free-range tree”) refers to a Christmas tree that is taken from nature as opposed to grown in a farm, and a scharrelkind (“free-range child”) is a child that is allowed to play outside without adult supervision.
Conjugation
| Conjugation of scharrelen (weak) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | scharrelen | |||
| past singular | scharrelde | |||
| past participle | gescharreld | |||
| infinitive | scharrelen | |||
| gerund | scharrelen n | |||
| present tense | past tense | |||
| 1st person singular | scharrel | scharrelde | ||
| 2nd person sing. (jij) | scharrelt, scharrel2 | scharrelde | ||
| 2nd person sing. (u) | scharrelt | scharrelde | ||
| 2nd person sing. (gij) | scharrelt | scharrelde | ||
| 3rd person singular | scharrelt | scharrelde | ||
| plural | scharrelen | scharrelden | ||
| subjunctive sing.1 | scharrele | scharrelde | ||
| subjunctive plur.1 | scharrelen | scharrelden | ||
| imperative sing. | scharrel | |||
| imperative plur.1 | scharrelt | |||
| participles | scharrelend | gescharreld | ||
| 1) Archaic. 2) In case of inversion. | ||||
Derived terms
- gescharrel
- rondscharrelen (“to wander about”)
- scharrel (“casual sex partner”)
- scharrelaar (“European roller”)
- scharrelbenen (“to walk clumsily”)
- scharrelboom (“Christmas tree taken from nature”)
- scharrelei (“free-range egg”)
- scharrelkind (“child allowed to play outside unsupervised”)
- scharrelkip (“free-range chicken”)
- scharrelmelk (“free-range milk”)
- scharrelvarken (“free-range pig”)
- scharrelvarkensvlees (“free-range pork meat”)
- scharrelvlees (“free-range meat”)
- scharrelvrouw (“woman who works part-time”)
Descendants
- Petjo: scharl'n, scharrelen