What does “wasknijper” mean in Dutch?

A short word-of-the-day clip holds up a wasknijper and asks: do you know what this is? The word builds from two plain pieces: was (laundry, wash) and knijper, “the thing that pinches,” from knijpen (to pinch, squeeze). Put together, a wasknijper is exactly what it sounds like: the little pincher that clips your wet laundry to the line so the wind doesn’t take it.

In Flanders, the same object usually goes by wasspeld, “laundry pin,” built from speld (pin) instead. Both names describe the object by what it does or how it’s shaped, a common move in everyday Dutch compounds; once you know knijpen means “to pinch,” words like broodknijper (bread-bag clip) and papierknijper (paper clip, binder clip) stop needing a dictionary.