TNTL 111

C. Henstra

De Breeveertien in de woordenboeken

Abstract - The 'Breeveertien' (Broadfourteen) used to be and still is an extensive (broad) plain fourteen fathoms deep in front of the coast of Holland. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the same plain could be called a shoal because the surrounding sea bottom was lower everywhere. In the course of the nineteenth century the differences in depth disappeared and therefore the Broadfourteen should no longer be called a shoal. In the dictionaries there are several misconceptions about the Broadfourteen; consequently the Broadfourteen is still called a shoal, even in the biggest dictionary of the Dutch language, the WNT.