sooterkin

Etymology

From dialectal Dutch zoeterke(n) (“sweatheart”) (compare zoetje, zoetke (“sweetheart”)), equivalent to sweet + -kin or soot + -kin.

Why this word is great

SOOTERKIN — [Noun] A mouse-like creature from Dutch folklore, born to women who sit too long over stoves; also, an abortive scheme or a Dutch person. From dialectal Dutch zoeterke(n) ("sweetheart"), equivalent to zoet ("sweet") + -ke (diminutive suffix), or possibly influenced by soot + -kin (diminutive suffix). Unlike "chimera" (a patchwork beast of grand mythology) or "debacle" (a spectacular collapse), the sooterkin is a humble failure—a thing half-imagined, half-realized. It is the charred crust of bread forgotten in the oven, the inkblot on a love letter that smudges the final word, the faint squeak in the walls that might be a mouse or just the house settling. Some disappointments are too small to name, and so we call them sooterkins.

noun

  1. A mouse-like creature which, according to folklore, Dutch women who sit over stoves give birth to.
  2. An abortive scheme.“Fruits of dull heat, and sooterkins of wit.”
  3. A Dutch person.