• Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
namaak-
quickinfo

Namaak- is a category-neutral prefixoid, productively attaching to nouns to form nouns like namaakartikelen fake articles and occasionally to adjectives to form words like namaaklederen fake leather. The general meaning is false, imitative, fake.

readmore

Namaak- ['na-mak] is a category-neutral prefixoid, ultimately derived from the verb namaken after-make copy (as in that pistool is nagemaakt that gun is copied), probably via predicative use of the stem as an adjective (as in that pistool is namaak that gun is fake). Namaak attaches productively to nouns to form nouns like namaakbont imitation fur and namaakhelden fake heroes. Occasionally it also combines with adjectives to form words like namaaklederen (made out of) fake leather (which also may be analysed as a an adjectivalization of the noun namaakleer fake leather) (Etymologiebank, WNT). Namaak is an independent phonological word and carries stress. Syllabification respects the morphological boundary: namaak-artikelen imitation-articles. There is competition with the foreign prefix pseudo and the indigenous prefixoid nep, the exact division of labour is unknown. The semantics of formations with namaak is compositional, the meaning of the whole being a function of the menaing of the parts, but not intersective: a namaakpistool fake gun is not a type of gun, but rather something that is not a gun, although it shares certain properties with a true gun.

References
    printreport errorcite