Volhoudt

Volhoudt is, in Dutch usage, primarily encountered as a nonstandard or inflected form of the verb volhouden, which means to persevere or endure. In standard modern Dutch, volhouden is written as one verb, and the common present-tense constructions are proefed as hij houdt vol (he keeps going) or wij houden vol (we persevere). The form volhoudt itself is not listed as a separate standard form in contemporary dictionaries and is generally considered nonstandard or dialectal. It may appear in historical texts, older orthography, or as a stylistic variant in certain writings.

Etymology and grammar describe volhouden as a compound built from vol- and houden, with houden meaning “to hold” and vol- conveying a sense of going to the end or to completion. The semantic core is persistence: to maintain effort, resilience, and resolve over time. Proper conjugation in the present tense does not use a standalone volhoudt; the idiomatic expression is typically expressed with houden vol, or with the finite verb houden conjugated to match the subject.

Usage and context: volhouden is widely used in discussions of sports, education, work, and personal development to denote sustained effort in the face of difficulty. Related Dutch terms include uithoudingsvermogen (stamina or endurance) and volharding (perseverance). In most contemporary texts, writers avoid the nonstandard volhoudt in favor of the standard form and surrounding constructions; nonetheless, readers may encounter volhoudt in dialect literature or in older sources.