kakkerlak

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch kakkerlak.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.kər.lak/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

kakkerlak (plural kakkerlakke, diminutive kakkerlakkie)

1. cockroach (insect)

Dutch

Alternative forms

• kackerlack, kackerlacker (obsolete)

Etymology

First attested as kackerlack towards the end of the 16th century as a derogatory term for a chatterbox or sycophant, deriving from kakker, a contemptuous term derived from kakken (“to shit, defecate”), and lakker (“talker, freeloader”), from likken (“to lick”).

This word was subsequently conflated (from the mid-17th century onwards) with an unrelated early Portuguese form cacalacca designating the insect. The Portuguese word has in turn been argued to be derived from a Caribbean word, from which Spanish cucaracha and hence English cockroach also originate. However, a more likely theory is that the Portuguese learned that name from the people in the then Dahomey. In Fon, kakalaka means cockroaches.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑ.kərˌlɑk/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: kak‧ker‧lak

Noun

kakkerlak m (plural kakkerlakken, diminutive kakkerlakje n)

1. cockroach (certain non-termite insect of the order Blattodea)
2. (derogatory) contemptible person
3. (soccer, colloquial, often derogatory) supporter of Feyenoord

Derived terms

• Duitse kakkerlak

Descendants

• Afrikaans: kakkerlak
• Berbice Creole Dutch: kakalaka
• Negerhollands: kakerlaker, kakelak
  • → Virgin Islands Creole: kakalaka, kakaroachee (dated)
• Skepi Creole Dutch: kakalaka
• → Ambonese Malay: kakarlak
• → Aukan: kakaaka
• → Caribbean Hindustani: calcattá
• → Danish: kakerlak
• → Indonesian: kakerlak
• → Kupang Malay: kakarlak
• → Lokono: kakalaka
• → Manado Malay: kakerlak
• → Papiamentu: kakalaka
• → Sranan Tongo: kakalaka
  • → Saramaccan: ahalakpákpa