spuit elf geeft ook modder

Dutch

Alternative forms

• spuit elf geeft modder

Etymology

Literally, “hose eleven gives mud, too”. The origin of the phrase is unclear; hypotheses include:

• from the concept of 11 as a crazy or incomplete number, not quite a dozen (cf. gekkengetal);
• from an old firefighting figure of speech: by the time the eleventh fire hose arrives at the scene of a fire, the canal from which the fire brigade was drawing water may have only mud remaining.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spœy̯t ˈɛlf xeːft ˈoːk ˈmɔdər/

Phrase

spuit elf geeft ook modder

1. (Netherlands, derogatory) Indicating that a nobody (an irrelevant person) has given a belated, often irrelevant or ignorant, comment.

Related terms

• spuit elf

Further reading

• “Spuit elf geeft (ook nog) modder”, in taaladvies.net‎^[1] (in Dutch), 2004
• “Spuit elf geeft ook modder”, in Onze Taal‎^[2] (in Dutch), 2016, archived from the original on 26 March 2022