# Swaffelen
**Swaffelen** (also spelled **zwaffelen**) is a Dutch slang verb meaning to swing the penis, usually soft or semi-erect, so that it taps or slaps against an object or another person, often repeatedly.[1](https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/swaffelen) • [2](https://kaikki.org/dictionary/Dutch/meaning/s/sw/swaffelen.html) The word became internationally known after a Dutch student performed the act against the [Taj Mahal](https://www.edgepedia.org/taj-mahal) in 2008, and it was elected the Dutch Word of the Year for 2008.[3](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen) • [4](https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/12/17/Dutch-pick-penis-shaking-term-as-top-word/UPI-73411229494794/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Meaning | To swing the penis and deliberately tap it against people or objects; a transitive, informal verb (English rough equivalent: "dickslap")[1](https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/swaffelen) • [2](https://kaikki.org/dictionary/Dutch/meaning/s/sw/swaffelen.html) |
| Word of the Year | Won the 2008 Dutch election with 57% of about 16,000 online votes, ahead of *wiiën* (playing Wii games) and *bankendomino* (a chain of bank failures)[4](https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/12/17/Dutch-pick-penis-shaking-term-as-top-word/UPI-73411229494794/) • [5](https://www.vandale.nl/pages/van-dale-woord-van-het-jaar-historie-nederland) |
| Trigger event | A student on a school trip to India in March 2008 rubbed his penis against the 17th-century Taj Mahal mausoleum while a classmate filmed it[3](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen) |
| Older word | The dialect form *zwaffelen* meant "to swing back and forth" and was recorded in 1903 in the *Idioticon van het Antwerpsch Dialect*; it was mostly used of agricultural implements[3](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen) • [6](https://neologismen.ivdnt.org/article/swaffelen) |
| Popularization | The sexual sense was popularized by the BNN television program *Spuiten en Slikken*[6](https://neologismen.ivdnt.org/article/swaffelen) |
| Recognition | In 2013 research by the Centrum voor Leesonderzoek, the word was recognized by 88% of Dutch and 84% of Flemish respondents[1](https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/swaffelen) |
| Official status | Listed in the Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal of the Nederlandse Taalunie[1](https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/swaffelen) |
## Meaning and use
The verb is transitive and informal: it denotes slinging the male genitalia and deliberately tapping them against an object or person, sometimes with the aim of arousing oneself or someone else.[1](https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/swaffelen) • [7](https://mens-en-samenleving.infonu.nl/communicatie/62692-van-dale-woord-van-het-jaar.html) The Woordenboek van Nieuwe Woorden of the Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal classifies it as a native word whose function is often sexual or provocative.[6](https://neologismen.ivdnt.org/article/swaffelen) Derived forms include *swaffelaar* (a person who does this), *beswaffelen*, *afswaffelen*, and the compound *swaffelactie*.[6](https://neologismen.ivdnt.org/article/swaffelen)
Reported incidents show the range of objects involved. In January 2011 a 19-year-old from Melick in Limburg was fined after exposing himself on the Munsterplein in Roermond and then slapping his genitals against a police car; in 2012 a newspaper novel described a boy who "swaffelde the bus pole".[6](https://neologismen.ivdnt.org/article/swaffelen) • [3](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen) The word also spread into ordinary prose: Dutch columnists and novelists including Youp van 't Hek, Daphne Deckers, and Hans Dagelet used it in print between 2008 and 2019.[3](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen)
## The Taj Mahal incident
The word's breakthrough came from a video recorded during a school trip to India in mid-March 2008. It shows a student of the Eurocollege, a private college for event management, flanked by laughing classmates, taking his penis out of his trousers and rubbing it against the 17th-century mausoleum while shouting that he is the first man in the world to "swaffel" the Taj Mahal. A fellow student filmed it on a mobile phone and posted the footage online, and the story reached the foreign press, including Belgian newspapers.[3](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen)
The student was expelled from his school, which considered whether it could pursue the matter legally because he had besmirched its name; lawyers quoted in the press doubted that he could be prosecuted for it.[3](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen) • [6](https://neologismen.ivdnt.org/article/swaffelen) The *Algemeen Dagblad* wrote in December 2008 that the video had introduced the term to a wide public.[6](https://neologismen.ivdnt.org/article/swaffelen)
## Word of the Year 2008
At the end of 2008 the word was elected Dutch Word of the Year in a poll run by the newspaper *De Pers*, the dictionary publisher Van Dale, and the language society Genootschap Onze Taal.[8](https://onzetaal.nl/schatkamer/lezen/woorden/woorden-van-het-jaar) It received 57 percent of the roughly 16,000 online votes.[4](https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/12/17/Dutch-pick-penis-shaking-term-as-top-word/UPI-73411229494794/) The runners-up were *wiiën*, to play games on the Nintendo Wii, and *bankendomino*, a metaphor for banks falling like dominoes during the financial crisis.[4](https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/12/17/Dutch-pick-penis-shaking-term-as-top-word/UPI-73411229494794/) • [5](https://www.vandale.nl/pages/van-dale-woord-van-het-jaar-historie-nederland) Van Dale's chief editor Ton den Boon compiled the winner, together with 99 other new words, into the booklet *Woord van het jaar 2008*.[9](https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_taa014200901_01/_taa014200901_01_0014.php)
One later source places the poll in 2009, saying the word was voted Word of the Year in a poll held by Onze Taal and Van Dale that year, with *wiiën* second and *bankendomino* third.[10](https://www.dutchnews.nl/dictionary/swaffelen/) The contemporary reports of December 2008 and Van Dale's own historical overview date the election to 2008.[4](https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/12/17/Dutch-pick-penis-shaking-term-as-top-word/UPI-73411229494794/) • [5](https://www.vandale.nl/pages/van-dale-woord-van-het-jaar-historie-nederland)
Van Dale later observed that *swaffelen* was not the winner the 2008 organizers had hoped for: the word had entered the news only as a label for the backpacker's behavior at the Taj Mahal, but it subsequently acquired a broader meaning in everyday use.[11](https://www.vandale.nl/blogs/taaladvies/woorden-van-het-jaar-2007-2017)
## Etymology
The word is old in a new sense. The *Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal* records it as *zwaffelen*, used in Flanders in the meaning "to move back and forth; to swing; to whip", first recorded in 1903 in the *Idioticon van het Antwerpsch Dialect* by Cornelissen and Vervliet. That meaning has largely disappeared. The Woordenboek van Populair Taalgebruik dates the youth-slang sexual sense to 2002 and notes that the word was mainly a dialect word in Limburg, where it referred mostly to the swinging of agricultural implements.[3](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen) • [6](https://neologismen.ivdnt.org/article/swaffelen)
The [Wiktionary](https://www.edgepedia.org/wiktionary) etymology describes *swaffelen* as possibly a Randstad adaptation of a Southern Dutch dialect form, comparable to Brabantic *zwaffelen* ("to waddle, move back and forth") or Flemish *zwaffelen* ("to move unsteadily back and forth").[1](https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/swaffelen) The shift from *z* to *s* has been linked to German influence: German *schwaf* is a regional variant of *schweif* (tail, penis), and German also has *Schwanz* (penis) and the verb *schwafeln* (to prattle).[3](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen) Lexicologist Ton den Boon, chief editor of Van Dale, tied the origins to Dutch words for swing, sway, and sweep plus the German words for tail and penis.[4](https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/12/17/Dutch-pick-penis-shaking-term-as-top-word/UPI-73411229494794/)
## Spread and recognition
The BNN program *Spuiten en Slikken* popularized the sexual meaning, including a national "swaffel day" on which men filmed themselves performing the act against buildings, objects, or people.[6](https://neologismen.ivdnt.org/article/swaffelen) • [3](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen) The word is now listed in the official spelling guide of the Nederlandse Taalunie, and a 2013 recognition study by the Centrum voor Leesonderzoek found it known to 88% of Dutch and 84% of Flemish respondents.[1](https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/swaffelen)
Comparable slang exists in other languages: English has "willy waving" as a term for macho behavior, Americans use "Danza slap", and German has *anpimmeln*.[3](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen)
## References
1. [swaffelen, WikiWoordenboek (Dutch Wiktionary)](https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/swaffelen)
2. [swaffelen in Dutch, kaikki.org dictionary](https://kaikki.org/dictionary/Dutch/meaning/s/sw/swaffelen.html)
3. [swaffelen, Woordenboek van Populair Taalgebruik (Marc De Coster), Ensie](https://www.ensie.nl/woordenboek-van-populair-taalgebruik/swaffelen)
4. [Dutch pick penis-shaking term as top word, UPI, 17 December 2008](https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2008/12/17/Dutch-pick-penis-shaking-term-as-top-word/UPI-73411229494794/)
5. [Van Dale Woord van het Jaar, Historie Nederland](https://www.vandale.nl/pages/van-dale-woord-van-het-jaar-historie-nederland)
6. [swaffelen, Woordenboek van Nieuwe Woorden, Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal](https://neologismen.ivdnt.org/article/swaffelen)
7. [Van Dale Woord van het Jaar, Infonu](https://mens-en-samenleving.infonu.nl/communicatie/62692-van-dale-woord-van-het-jaar.html)
8. [Dossier Woorden van het jaar, Genootschap Onze Taal](https://onzetaal.nl/schatkamer/lezen/woorden/woorden-van-het-jaar)
9. [Berthold van Maris, "Smirten en swaffelen bij de Bosbank", Onze Taal 78 (2009), DBNL](https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_taa014200901_01/_taa014200901_01_0014.php)
10. [Swaffelen, Dictionary of Dutchness, DutchNews.nl](https://www.dutchnews.nl/dictionary/swaffelen/)
11. [Woorden van het Jaar 2007-2017, Van Dale Uitgevers](https://www.vandale.nl/blogs/taaladvies/woorden-van-het-jaar-2007-2017)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Social life and human behavior › Relationships and social issues*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license