voortschrijdt

Voortschrijdt is a Dutch verb form that appears primarily in historical texts. It is the third-person singular present tense form of the verb voortschrijven or, in some contexts, voortschrijden, used in older orthography to mean either to progress/advance or to continue writing. In contemporary standard Dutch, this exact spelling is rarely used; the modern equivalents are often written with the prefix separated, such as schrijft voort or schrijdt voort, depending on the verb sense.

Etymology and form: The word is built from the prefix voort- meaning forward or onward, attached to the verb stem schrijven (to write) or rijden (to go). The attached -dt ending signals the third-person singular present in older Dutch spelling. The separation of prefix and verb in modern Dutch (schrijft voort) is one reason voortschrijdt is now considered archaic.

Usage and meaning: In its historical usage, voortschrijdt could express ongoing progression, either in a literal sense (to progress or advance) or in a figurative sense (to continue writing or to proceed with an action). The exact nuance depended on context and the underlying verb form (voortschrijven versus voortschrijden). Today, Dutch texts typically convey the same ideas with separated forms (schrijft voort) or with the infinitive/gerund-like constructions.

Context and significance: Voortschrijdt is mainly of interest to linguists, philologists, editors, and readers of older Dutch literature. It reflects older spelling conventions and word-formation patterns, illustrating how compound verbs with prefixes were written and conjugated before modern standardization.