# buitenbest



## Andysi

Can anyone help translate this compound word into English? While it (and its companion "binnenbest") are seemingly nowhere to be located in any comprehensive dictionary in Nederlands that I've searched, I've come across it in isolated cases online but without being able to deduce anything from the context. For example there is a Cafe Binnenbest (Inside is best?) . I've seen advertisements for sale of cruisers and yachts where a descriptor often used is "binnen en buitenbest" - which I presume means "immaculate inside and out." But these usages convey a positive tone.
I'm hoping to find a more negative connotation though, and wonder if it could mean something like "below par" or "sub-standard."
Your insights and ideas greatly appreciated!


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## eno2

Never heard nor seen.
Not in Van Dale.

Google:

"toch wil de redaktie u nog een buitenbest 1994 toewensen": Here it has the meaning of 'bovenste best' or 'opperbest'


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## petoe

Where did you find this word, why should it have a negative connotation?


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## eno2

It's used in the yacht sector, he said, a Google search confirms that.


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## Peterdg

I think it is an abbreviation for "buitenbesturing" and "binnenbesturing".


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## eno2

Mystery solved.


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## Andysi

Thank you gentlemen, for the copious answers! The negative connotation was suspected by me since the writer of a letter was claiming that many reviews in newspapers are inept and the reviewers don't know enough about their subject and that despite what some might say in their defence,  "maar dan heb je 't mis, het kan buitenbest. Dank u." To me this sounds like a negative - as if he's saying the articles are sub-standard in quality, less than their best, or something similar.


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## Andysi

Andysi said:


> Thank you gentlemen, for the copious answers! The negative connotation was suspected by me since the writer of a letter was claiming that many reviews in newspapers are inept and the reviewers don't know enough about their subject and that despite what some might say in their defence,  "maar dan heb je 't mis, het kan buitenbest. Dank u." To me this sounds like a negative - as if he's saying the articles are sub-standard in quality, less than their best, or something similar.



Just to clarify my previous comment - my understanding of this sentence is something like, "..but then you'd be mistaken, it really can be that sub-standard (i.e literally "outside/below its best"), thank you very much! (in other words - "my comment stands and I'll brook no disagreement so stop defending them.")


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## eno2

I can only imagine it's meaning  is  positive as in #2

I don't know what your interlocutor meant by using it, as it doesn't fit the context. 
Very few people would ever use buitenbest. And what's more he seems to be using it in the wrong sense.


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## Andysi

Eerlijk genoeg.... I agree it doesn't fit well here at all, and so I'm puzzled. The letter comes from a set of historical correspondence and is part of a translation project I'm working on, so I can't ask the writer for clarification. The lead up to the part I quoted (here translated by me) goes as follows:
"Every time you encounter such misconceptions in print you might say that just can't happen [i.e. implying the journalists are way too professional to permit such a _faux pas_] , but then you are mistaken...._het kan buitenbest_."
He seems to be insisting that journalists really can produce uninformed articles containing nonsense (as he had earlier highlighted a specific example in a specific newspaper). Therefore it seems unlikely that a word would be used immediately in this context to mean "exceptionally good" or "splendid." If he meant "it's below par and could be done much better" then why not say that, and for which there is adequate vocab. at hand?
This morning after sleeping on it I had an afterthought, that perhaps he has contrived buitenbest to mean something like "vaststaand" - without question, indisputably etc.
The only other option I can think of at present is that the writer is using irony, along the lines of "contrary to what you might think, misconceptions by journalists do often appear in print, and those guys are exceptionally good at it!" In other words, the standard positive connotation is here being twisted to emphasise something he disapproves of.
At any rate, this does appear to be an abnormal usage of the word as you've described it. So thank you for pointing that out!


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## eno2

> He seems to be insisting that journalists really can produce uninformed articles containing nonsense



Yes he is. He's confirming that.  Using a word, buitenbest,  that 'doesn't exist'

When I said 'it doesn't fit the context', that's because I got a bit confused by your < in other words - "my comment stands and I'll brook no disagreement so stop defending them> .
So I retract that. It fits the context. Het kan buitenbest = it's extremely possible indeed.


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## Andysi

Very good! As you said in #6 "Mystery solved." 
The part that confused you was simply elaborating on the brusque "Dank u" comment at the end - which I've come across many times in English usage as well, and which commonly implies "Don't argue - end of story!"
Thanks to all of you who had something to say about this word that "doesn't exist."  The buitenbesturing translation is serendipitously  relevant to a separate matter I've been looking into re sailing, so that was very useful to know too.


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