Waarom snoozen je juist minder uitgerust maakt

What does “sluimknop” mean in Dutch?

Dutch has its own word for the snooze button — sluimknop — built from sluimeren (to slumber, to doze) and knop (button). Most learners only know the anglicism snooze, but the native compound existed all along, quietly describing the same guilty habit. Sluimeren shares roots with German schlummern and English slumber, making the button’s name feel exactly right: it promises a little extra doze, not a full sleep.

In the clip a Dutch sleep survey drops both words within a sentence of each other: “is het wel zo slim om je snooze knop in te drukken?” and then “twee derde drukt elke dag op de sluimknop” — the anglicism in the casual question, the native word in the finding. The full dictionary form is sluimerknop (used in official Apple iOS Dutch documentation for the sleep/wake button), but sluimknop is the contracted everyday version you’ll hear. Knowing the compound also unlocks sluimeren as a verb: hij lag te sluimeren op de bank — he was dozing on the sofa.