Kenzie droomt van een vakantievriendje

What is a “vakantievriendje” in Dutch?

A vakantievriendje is a vacation boyfriend, with the diminutive -tje doing the emotional work: this isn’t your vriend (boyfriend), it’s your vriendje (little/casual boyfriend), and the vakantie prefix means it ends when the holiday ends. The implied contract is a fun, low-stakes summer fling, the kind that happens at a Spanish beach resort where Dutch teens crowd in by the busload. Female version: vakantievriendinnetje. Plural disasters: vakantievriendjes. The word is unembarrassed and slightly older-sister.

In this NPO Zapp clip, twelve-year-old Kenzie sighs at the camera: “Ik had zo graag een vakantievriendje willen krijgen.” (“I really wanted a vacation boyfriend.”) Standard summer disappointment, articulated.