sokkelen

Sokkelen is a Dutch verb that appears only sporadically in historical and regional sources. The most plausible derivation is from sokkel, meaning pedestal or base. In this sense, sokkelen refers to placing, fixing, or mounting an object on a sokkel, commonly a statue or monument. In art history and museology, the verb may occur in descriptions of how sculptures are installed or displayed, for example when describing the act of setting a sculpture on its pedestal.

Because sokkel is widely used in standard Dutch, the preferred phrasing today is typically op een sokkel plaatsen rather than the verb sokkelen itself. Consequently, sokkelen is regarded as archaic or dialectal in contemporary usage and does not have a broad, standardized definition.

Beyond the pedestal sense, some regional dialects have employed sokkelen with additional figurative meanings related to elevation or display, but such uses are not uniform and vary by locality. The term is also extremely rare in modern dictionaries and may not appear in many reference works.

In summary, sokkelen is a marginal Dutch verb with its main sense tied to placing something on a pedestal, characterized by its rarity and regional character in present-day language.