Under the smoke of Zoetermeer: ​​this is where that expression comes from

taketonews

You know the saying ‘I live close to Zoetermeer’? You can use this if you live in the village of Benthuizen or Stompwijk, for example. What does that statement actually mean? And where does it come from?

For the origin of this statement we have to go back in time and to the other side of the world.

Meaning said

Most people are familiar with the pronunciation. If you ‘live close to Zoetermeer’, that means that you live very close to Zoetermeer. This way you can easily explain the geographical location of your place of residence. The expression came about because, normally, there is more smoke in a city than in a village.

Francois Valentijn

But who ever made that statement? And where does it come from? The oldest mention of this expression is in the Dictionary of the Dutch Language from 1726. The Dordrecht minister and writer François Valentijn (Dordrecht, April 17, 1666 – The Hague, August 6, 1727) wrote the book Old and New East Indies where he used the expression in the sentence:

The Island of Onrust, three miles from Batavia, and thus as if under the smoke of this city

François Valentijn was broadcast twice to ‘de Oost’, in other words Indonesia and the surrounding area. There he writes his book Old and New East Indies. It is a very comprehensive description of the history of the Dutch East-India Company (VOC). The book consists of five parts, 5,144 pages and 1,050 illustrations.

So you see that a perfectly normal expression can have a special origin.

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