# Afrikaans: moewiese, so waar as vet, wys



## aksel07

Hi!
I'm reading a book for children in Afrikaans but I really don't understand some words (I don't find them even in a dictionary). Can someone help me??
- van 'n moewiese saal
- .. en sowaar as nannies, ja, sowaar as vet, my sussie kou net daar 'n gat regdeur haar bed. (Is the first part a pun? In the dictionary I found only the expression 'so waar as vet')
- ..eers toe di tandarts sussie se tande kom wys (what does 'wys' mean in this sentence? Does it mean 'show'?)
Thanks in advance!
Aksel


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## HKK

I don't know Afrikaans, but these are my educated guesses based on Dutch and English:

moewiese saal: movie theater
sowaar as nannies/sowaar as vet: very much true
wys: could be 'to show', in Dutch there's 'ik wijs (naar)' meaning I show or I point (at).


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## Frank06

Hi,


aksel07 said:


> - van 'n moewiese saal


I googled for the word and it's an adjective (nothing to do with movies, though . As far as I can sort it out, it seems to be some kind of slang, a popular word among youngsters (?) and it means very (terrific / terrible), great, fantastic, ...
E.g. 
"I can confirm that ’n *moewiese* groot yacht recently sailed up the Kwelera"...
"daar is *moewiese* pryse "
"met 'n *moewiese* spuit en boor in die hand" (it's about a visit to the dentist .

Groetjes,

Frank


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## HKK

Maybe the "movies" meaning evolved to a superlative meaning. I googled "moewies" and and it seems to mean "movies" in these results:

Dis waar dit verskil van ander boeke of moewies.
Dit was net een van daai dae waaroor moewies gemaak word.
...en ek laaik ook die Indiana Jones moewies.


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## aksel07

Thanks a lot to everybody for your attention and your precious suggestions!

Aksel


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## Frank06

Hi,

I was told that 'moewiese' is a euphemistic form derived from 'moerse'. Moerse means 'mother' (as in uterus =  'moer').

According to the nice person who helped me, the term moerse is considered vulgar and hence children and young adults (pre 18) bend the word to moewiese, which renders it more acceptable to parental ears.

She also gave the following examples and translations:
Moerse skip > Moewiese skip ("large")
Moewiese groot koek ("fabulous")
Moewiese ete ("tasty")
Moewiese pak slae ("unforgetful")   

Groetjes,

Frank


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## Lewell

Mowiese means Masive,Large, very big. Like Frank said its slang for moerse and it is considered vulgar. (swearing)
"wys" The dentist showed them his sister's teeth 
Moewiese groot koek is a very big cake .
Adults dont use the word "mowies" its only the kids cause they are not allowed to say "moerse".


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