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kluning

As the first serious frost in years starts to get Holland into iceskating mode, one of the strangest Dutch words is coming back into use: 'klunen', 'to walk on iceskates over land'. Of Frysian origin, it is used in skating tours to avoid bad stretches of ice or to get from one frozen lake or canal to another, most famously during the Elfstedentocht.

Though English has apparently loaned the word (kluning), there's probably no other language in the world with a verb for this rather ridiculous-looking activity.

(Old-school kluning photo here. Some more old-school iceskating photos here).

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