97-jarige oma breekt wingwalk record

What does “straf” mean in Dutch slang, and why isn’t it “punishment” here?

Straf usually means “punishment,” or as an adjective, “strict” or “severe.” But said about a person or a feat, it flips into praise: “iets straf doen” is to pull off something seriously impressive. Calling a 97-year-old’s wing-walk — standing on a flying plane’s wing through loops and spins — “straf” is exactly that use: awed, not disciplinary.

The form in the clip, strafs, adds the predicate -s that Dutch tacks onto adjectives after iets (“iets lekkers,” “iets raars”) — so iets straf becomes iets strafs. The slangy, impressed sense is especially common in Belgian Dutch, where een strafe prestatie is high praise, though it travels into informal Netherlands Dutch too.