Masculine

🪳

kakkerlak

Meaning

(masculine) cockroach (certain non-termite insect of the order Blattodea)
(derogatory, masculine) contemptible person
(colloquial, derogatory, masculine, often) supporter of Feyenoord

coleopteron

schildvleugelige

Kever

hamamböceği

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈkɑ.kərˌlɑk/

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.

Improve your pronunciation

Notes

Sign in to write sticky notes

Start learning Dutch with learnfeliz.

Practice speaking and memorizing "kakkerlak" and many other words and sentences in Dutch.

Start learning Dutch

Masculine

kakkerlak

Meaning

Concepts

Synonyms

Translations