The German Lucian Reindl, who works as student coach and external expert for the Department of Industrial Design, has for many years been a regular visitor to the Netherlands. Yet he is still amazed at one thing, namely: “that people say ‘Dui’, (when we in Germany say: ‘Auf Wiedersehen’, ‘Bis bald’ or ‘Bis demnächst’). I have no idea where the ‘Dui’ comes from. I do believe it is not very old because I can’t remember having heard it when I was young.”

Lucian Reindl refers to the farewell greeting ‘doei’. It is an informal greeting that you would not normally use for people whom you address with the polite form of address ‘u’ (elderly people, people you do not know, people in high positions). The Van Dale Etymological Dictionary says about its origin: ‘doei as well as doeg: etymology unknown, kind of contraction of goeiendag with a position shift of the oe.’ According to a survey conducted by the linguist Nicoline van der Sijs the word emerged in the Dutch language in 1975, a year after the word ‘doeg’ had started to be used, which makes it more plausible that doei has emerged from doeg. Harrie Scholtmeijer, an expert in the field of dialects, has researched the spread of forms of greeting. He has informed Cursor that, indeed, doei has probably sprung from doeg. Nevertheless, he cannot provide an explanation about its exact origin. (SK)