About twenty years ago, the government had the Queen say in the Speech from the Throne that we respect have to have for the other, while a national tile wisdom says that respect is not a right, but something you have to earn. Who is right now, Your Majesty or the people? Maybe both. Respect is not an understanding that the Dutch language just came by chance. It comes from Latin, where it is related to the verb responder, which can be translated as ‘look around’ or ‘look around’. Hence also respite which, like the older Dutch, means ‘in a moment’ to postpone.
Those who look carefully around themselves are attentive. That is why respect originally stood for ‘attention’ or ‘to take into account’, a meaning that still exists in English. ‘In many respects‘ is with us ‘in many ways’. This meaning has disappeared in Dutch, except in respectively.
Bow the head
From the meaning ‘attention’ to ‘awe’ or ‘reverence’ there is no great development. Anyone who, by looking closely at others, sees that someone has more power or prestige, will quickly bow their heads in respect. As far back as the 16th century, we read how believers respect their bishop. This is the respect of popular wisdom: the respect that a superior can command or the respect we pay to someone who has achieved a lot.
But the word has since evolved again. The French talk about respecting promises or rules of the game and this interpretation has also come along with the historic business transactions between France and the Netherlands. So to respect we now also contracts. But this is not the end of foreign influences on Dutch respect. English has an expression like ‘without respect of persons‘ which in Dutch, translated as the Bible word from Romans 2:11, reads ‘without respect of persons’. So without distinction.
God does not discriminate, but recognizes everyone in his own worth, Paul explains
This is not about awe or reverence, but simply recognition. God does not discriminate, but recognizes everyone in his own worth, Paul explains to his newly converted fellow believers and this is the meaning that Queen Beatrix used at the time in the Speech from the Throne.
Respect is therefore used in two ways in Dutch: respect on the one hand and recognition on the other. That’s what makes the discussion so difficult. If a representative of a disregarded population group demands respect for himself and his friends, he is asking for recognition, so that he will no longer be discriminated against. In the ensuing debate, however, his opponent can pretend not to know this meaning and indicate that he will only show respect if the other person achieves something. So he uses respect to mean reverence or awe. Perhaps out of ignorance, but there is a good chance that he will do it to put the underlying party in its place again. In such a case, a discussion is of little use, unless an arbitrator comes forward who calls on both parties to respect the rules of the language game and points out that both have expressed a different respect.