knabbelen
Dutch
Etymology
Compare German knabbern (“to nibble”). Both could ultimately be from Proto-Indo-European *gnet- (“to press”)[1], or imitative.[2]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈknɑ.bə.lə(n)/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: knab‧be‧len
- Rhymes: -ɑbələn
Verb
knabbelen
- (intransitive) to nibble
- De eekhoorn knabbelde op een nootje.
- The squirrel was nibbling on a nut.
Inflection
| Inflection of knabbelen (weak) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| infinitive | knabbelen | |||
| past singular | knabbelde | |||
| past participle | geknabbeld | |||
| infinitive | knabbelen | |||
| gerund | knabbelen n | |||
| present tense | past tense | |||
| 1st person singular | knabbel | knabbelde | ||
| 2nd person sing. (jij) | knabbelt | knabbelde | ||
| 2nd person sing. (u) | knabbelt | knabbelde | ||
| 2nd person sing. (gij) | knabbelt | knabbelde | ||
| 3rd person singular | knabbelt | knabbelde | ||
| plural | knabbelen | knabbelden | ||
| subjunctive sing.1 | knabbele | knabbelde | ||
| subjunctive plur.1 | knabbelen | knabbelden | ||
| imperative sing. | knabbel | |||
| imperative plur.1 | knabbelt | |||
| participles | knabbelend | geknabbeld | ||
| 1) Archaic. | ||||
Derived terms
- knabbelaar
References
- Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 3, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 1022
- van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010) Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute