Life on the Kabeljauws

The meaning of the word Kabeljauws has been the cause of much trouble to Dutch scholars.

It is a commercial-word meaning ‘cod-fish’ and it has wide distribution in more or less modified forms among several European nations. The Old Dutch word is kabelaw and kaplawe and goes back as early as 1350.

In German we find kabeljau and kabliau; in Swedish kabeljou,kabbiljo and cabiljo, and in Danish and Norwegian , kabeljau or kabliau.

The East Frisian is kabbeljouw. English cabilliau and kabbelow (sailors slang for salted fish) are other forms of the word occurring in the Teutonic languages.

There are also the French, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan and Polish spellings which I won`t bore you with.

So the next time you come down to the estuary and see a sign saying Kabeljous it does not mean that it is incorrect, it could have read Kabeljauws or even Kabeljouws for that matter.

Just enjoy yourselves and remember this is a Nature Reserve.

Nature is beauty in its natural form so let’s keep our beach clean.

“The smallest good deed is better than the grandest good intention”