What does “aantje” mean?
aantje
/ˈaːntjə/AHN-tyuh
aantje is Low German (Plattdeutsch) for a little duck: the German Entchen, the English duckling. It is pronounced roughly “AHN-tyuh”.
Where the word comes from
Low German is the traditional language of northern Germany. In several of its dialects a duck is an Aant, and the ending -je turns a noun into a diminutive, much like -chen in German or “little” in English. So Aant + -je = aantje, a little duck.
| Word | Language | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Aant | Low German | duck |
| aantje | Low German | little duck |
| Entchen | German | little duck |
| duckling | English | little duck |
Why this name
aantje is simply a small tool for working with the “big” DuckLake – so a little duck for the big lake fits rather well.