te elfder ure
Dutch edit
Alternative forms edit
- ter elfder ure (unofficial)
Etymology edit
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 edit
Prepositional phrase edit
- at the eleventh hour (at the last minute; at a time close to the end or almost too late)
Usage notes edit
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 edit
- 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.")