flesjes

Flesje is the Dutch diminutive form of fles, meaning small bottle. The plural is flesjes. In Dutch, flesje refers to any small bottle designed to hold liquids, and is used in contexts from household packaging to professional product labeling. The diminutive suffix conveys small size or affection rather than a distinct object type.

Flesjes are widely used for beverages, medicines, cosmetics, essential oils, and laboratory reagents. They are common as consumer packaging, sample bottles, travel containers, and in pharmacies and cosmetic shops. Sizes vary, but many daily-use flesjes range from about 5 to 50 milliliters.

Materials include glass and plastics such as PET or HDPE. Common closures are screw caps, droppers, spray tops, or corks depending on the content. In medicine, many flesjes have child-resistant caps to reduce the risk of accidental ingestion or tampering.

Manufacture and regulation: traditional glass flesjes were produced by glass blowing; modern production relies on injection or blow molding for plastics and automated filling lines. Packaging labels must include content, volume, expiration date, and safety information where applicable, with EU rules governing labeling and recycling.

Beyond everyday use, the term also appears in contexts such as travel-size products or perfume sample bottles, and in Dutch descriptions of pharmaceutical, cosmetic, or laboratory packaging. As a linguistic note, the word exemplifies the frequent Dutch practice of forming diminutives to denote small objects.