Talk:hartstikke

Etymology

I've found a perhaps unreliable etymology for this word:

"Hartstikke" verwijst naar een ziekte: als de kransslagaderen verstopt raken, krijgt het hart geen zuurstof meer - het hart stikt- en dat kan weer resulteren in een hartaanval. Vermoedelijk mocht het daarom niet in het zwartekousenwoordenboek.' '

It reads: "hartstikke" refers to a disease where the coronary arteries are clogged so the heart does not get any more oxygen. The heart "suffocates" ( hart stikt) and this can result in a heart attack.

This reference to the heart instead of hard is the reason why it is written with a t and not with a d as in hardvochtig, hardhandig or hardnekkig. Many Dutch people wonder why that is, there you have it. Other words with reference to the heart itself are hartstochtelijk, hartroerend, hartbrekend. Mallerd 18:17, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

This seems indeed unreliable, although according to the standard etymologic literature ([[1]]) it has indeed to do with hart (“heart”). The original use seems to have been hartstikke dood, meaning dead as a doornail and literally “dead as if stabbed in the heart” (pertaining to steken). In this combination hartstikke had an obviously intensifying sense, which was later transferred to other adjectives, whereby the original sense of “heart-stabbingly” was of course lost.Kolmiel (talk) 20:41, 24 February 2015 (UTC)