Onredelijke

Onredelijke is a Dutch adjective meaning not reasonable, excessive, or unfair. It is used to describe actions, demands, conditions, or judgments that go beyond what is justifiable or proportionate. The form onredelijke is the inflected variant used before de-nouns (as in onredelijke eis, onredelijke vertraging).

Etymology: The word is built from on- (a negation prefix) and redelijk (reasonable). It is related to similar constructs in other Germanic languages, reflecting a common pattern of negation applied to a semantic base.

Usage: In everyday language, people speak of "onredelijke eisen" (unreasonable demands) or "onredelijke vertraging" (unreasonable delay). In legal and political discourse, the term often appears in relation to the principle of redelijkheid en billijkheid (reasonableness and fairness), which governs civil relationships and contracts. Terms or conduct that violate that principle may be described as onredelijk, for example, "onredelijke bezwarende bepalingen" in contracten or "onredelijke gevolgen" van een beslissing.

See also: Redelijkheid en billijkheid; proportionaliteit; onrechtvaardig.