# donder op!



## sound shift

My dictionaries are no use on this.

I get the impression that it should be used with caution, but what does it mean?
Piss off?
Go to hell?
F*** off?

Bij voorbaat dank.


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## optimistique

sound shift said:


> My dictionaries are no use on this.
> 
> I get the impression that it should be used with caution, but what does it mean?
> *Piss off?*
> Go to hell?
> F*** off?
> 
> Bij voorbaat dank.


 
I guess that 'piss off' is a good translation. There's nothing in *donder op* that's really vulgar (donder = thunder), but of course no-one likes it when it is said to them.


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## elroy

If it's not vulgar I would suggest "get lost" as a more fitting translation.


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## sweetsugarbaby

It is not real vulgair to say donder op, and I would translate it with: piss off. But it is rude to use the expression.


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## elroy

sweetsugarbaby said:


> It is not real vulgair to say donder op, and I would translate it with: piss off. But it is rude to use the expression.


 That's why I suggested "get lost."

In English, "piss off" _is_ vulgar, or at least borderline so.

"Get lost" is rude but not vulgar.

Welcome to the forum.


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## Abu Bishr

Hi Guys

Very interesting. In Afrikaans the meaning of "donder op" has evolved into something like "beating s.o. up", and is used in a slightly vulgar sense. I remember, we were always encouraged not to use it. Another Afrikaans word that comes close to it is "bliksem" and is often used in the same context e.g. "Jou Donder!" and "Jou Bliksem". In colloquial Afrikaans, though, we don't pronounce the second "d" in "donder" but we say instead "Jou Donner!". A typical way in which "donder" is used in Afrikaans is: "Hy het vir my opgedonder" (He beat me up) or "Ek donder vir jou" (I'm going to beat you up).


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## optimistique

Abu Bishr said:


> Hi Guys
> 
> Very interesting. In Afrikaans the meaning of "donder op" has evolved into something like "beating s.o. up", and is used in a slightly vulgar sense. I remember, we were always encouraged not to use it. Another Afrikaans word that comes close to it is "bliksem" and is often used in the same context e.g. "Jou Donder!" and "Jou Bliksem". In colloquial Afrikaans, though, we don't pronounce the second "d" in "donder" but we say instead "Jou Donner!". A typical way in which "donder" is used in Afrikaans is: "Hy het vir my opgedonder" (He beat me up) or "Ek donder vir jou" (I'm going to beat you up).


 
In Dutch you have this meaning too in the expression:
_iemand een opdonder geven (to beat someone up)_

I thought that in some regions the verb 'opdonderen' was also used in the meaning of 'to beat so. up', though in standard Dutch it is only equivalent to 'oprotten', of which indeed 'get lost' is a good translation.

I guess that in Dutch you cannot get much more vulgar than any of these expressions as opposed to English (where you can go even further to 'fuck off') so probably even the latter could be a fine translation.


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## eno2

Oprotten 





> vulgair (1950): <possibly from rot off.



Opdonderen: 





> oppleuren•hij kan voor mijn part opdonderen



I thought that opdonderen was not so rude as oprotten. Van Dale confirms that by NOT  indicating opdonderen as "vulgair".


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