vermeinen

Vermeinen is a Dutch verb that is now rare and largely confined to historical or literary texts. In older Dutch usage it is described as meaning to feign, to pretend, or to claim something that one does not genuinely hold. Because it is not part of contemporary standard Dutch, its sense and nuances can vary across surviving sources.

The word is formed with the prefix ver- attached to the verb meenen, or meinen, related to thinking or meaning. This etymological route suggests a sense of imputing a belief or attitude that is not authentic, aligning with meanings associated with deception or pretense in older diction. The exact scope of vermeinen can differ by author and period, and it is often encountered as a stylistic or archaic variant rather than as a living term in modern usage.

In modern Dutch, vermeinen is largely replaced by verbs that express similar ideas more clearly and routinely, such as beweren (to assert), veronderstellen (to suppose), vermoed een (to suspect), or menen (to think/mean). For readers and writers, vermeinen is typically treated as an historical or literary loanword rather than a productive part of everyday speech.

Because vermeinen is infrequently attested in current language, reliable examples are primarily found in older texts, glossaries, or studies of Early Modern Dutch. When encountered in scholarship, it is usually discussed in the context of historical language variation rather than as a standard, contemporary verb with a fixed, universally agreed-upon meaning. See also meenen, menen, veronderstellen.