verrassingkan

Verrassingkan is a coined verb that combines the Dutch verb verrassen with the Indonesian causative suffix -kan. It is not listed in standard Dutch or Indonesian dictionaries.

Etymology and form: verrassen means to surprise; adding -kan yields a causative meaning “to cause to surprise” or “to make someone be surprised” in languages that treat -kan as a causative marker. However, this construction is not part of conventional grammar in either language; its interpretation relies on assumptions about cross-linguistic adaptation or code-switching.

Usage: Verrassingkan appears in occasional discussions in multilingual online communities, language-learning blogs, and creative writing as a playful or experimental term. It is most often used in examples that illustrate bilingual word formation rather than as a standard verb.

Linguistic considerations: The term illustrates affixal expansion and language contact phenomena in which speakers borrow roots and add affixes from another language to convey new meaning. It is sometimes cited in glossaries of language hybridity as a hypothetical example.

See also: Verrassen; Indonesian affix -kan; Code-switching; Language hybridity.