Three meanings

Twice I have come across a word that has three meanings.

1. In Holland an Amsterdammer can mean three things.

a) a beer-glass slightly bigger than a "fleutje" (ignore spelling, ok?), meaning very much smaller than a pint but bigger than a fleutje (fyi a fleutje is an extremely small glass, which they dip into a sort of dishwasher liquid and then turn around, meaning that a fourth of the glass still contains the liquid and the rest is beer). The Dutch love this. I still think it tastes mostly like dishwasher-water.

b)An Amsterdammer is also a pole with three crosses. It symbolizes Amsterdam as a city.

c)Thirdly, it is a man from Amsterdam.

I remember an evening in Amsterdam, sitting outside at a bar at Leidseplein, looking at the waiter and ordering an "Amsterdammer". He said, "that would be me". I said, "yes, that'll do". He was goodlooking, ok?


The second example is a "stange". Here in Switzerland it means:

a) a glass of beer

b) 10 packs of cigs

c) and I learned this only today after having spent 3,5 years in this city...a hard-on.

If only the Swiss had the same sense of humour as the Dutch!