Huis Ten Buf - translation please
 

I think this may be Dutch for "House on the Hill". Does anyone know what it means and what language?

ONE translation might be "house at Buf" and yes, it appears to be Dutch. May also be an idiomatic phrase and sure someone here will know so topping it for you.

topping

The first two words are certainly Dutch. <i>Huis</i> is &quot;house&quot; and <i>ten</i> is &quot;of.&quot; Putting them together you have &quot;home of.&quot; <i>Buf</i> is probably the name of a person. Where did you see this. Have you tried to google this?

Are you sure you don't mean Huis ten Bos (the House in the Wood), which if memory serves is one of the Dutch royal residences?

Well, first of all, the word in Dutch for &quot;of&quot; is not 'ten' but rather the word 'van' so it isn't the &quot;house (or home) of Buf.&quot;

I suspect PatrickLondon is correct since the term 'ten' could probably also be translated as 'in the' as well as 'at'

I suspect the original poster has left the country already but you are welcome anyway.

No, I'm still here. I was guessing Buf might mean bluff. I bought a place in the mountains several years ago and there was (is) a carved sign on the lightpost with that name. I've always been curious as to what it meant and it occured to me that Fodorites might know.

It's clearly Dutch, but I take it your mountains were somewhere else!

A bit of googling produces very little clarification. There's a page where someone describes a 'buf' (rather jokingly I suspect) as a piece of cloth that can be used as general protection against sun, cold or sandstorm. I found another which used it as an acronym for something to do with implementing legislation. And that's about it.

The palace I was thinking of is spelt Huis ten Bosch, but Bosch is sometimes abbreviated to Bos. Might it have been a fancy script (like an 18th century 'long s')?

I think you might have more luck posting on something like the Usenet news group soc.culture.netherlands.

THANKS, PatrickLondon! Your advice helped me figure it out.

I took a closer look and the last letter is definitely an &quot;f&quot;. But, with all the filigrees and extras in the carving, I'd misread the middle letter. It's Bof, not buf.

I used AltaVista Babelfish and Bof means &quot;be lucky&quot;. So, I suppose the translation would be along the lines of &quot;Lucky House&quot;.

What a nice surprise!

(Considering one of the previous owners, I was a bit afraid to ask - I thought it could be something a bit tongue-in-cheek or risque!)

If you think that the sign might hae a &quot;risque&quot; connotation - - perhaps it is/was one of the kinds of houses to which a person goes - - to &quot;gt lucky&quot;...

Maybe even &quot;in the <i>Buf</i>&quot;!?

;)

Best wishes,

Rex

Ha Ha, Rex! Perhaps you are right! I hadn't thought of that!

Well, it's been both for me!