''Mokum'' (מקום) is the

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

word for "place" or "safe haven". It is derived from the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

word ''makom'' (מקום, "place"). In Yiddish, the names for some cities in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

were shortened to ''Mokum'' and had the first letter of the name of the city, transliterated into the

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet (, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is a unicase, unicameral abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages, most notably ...

, added to them. Cities named this way were

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

, and

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

. ''Mokum'', without ''

Aleph Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician ''ʾālep'' 𐤀, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew ''ʾālef'' , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic ''ʾālap'' � ...

'', is still commonly used as a

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

in the Netherlands for the city of Amsterdam. The nickname was first considered to be an example of ''

bargoens ''Bargoens'' () is a form of Dutch slang. More specifically, it is a cant language that arose in the 17th century, and was used by criminals, tramps and travelling salesmen as a secret code, like Spain's '' Germanía'' or French ''Argot''. It ...

'', a form of Dutch

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

, but in the 20th century it lost its negative sound and is now used by Amsterdammers as a nickname for their city in a sentimental context. Examples are the song "

Brand in Mokum "Scotland's Burning", also known in England as "London's Burning", is a variant of a song and nursery rhyme popular with children. Words The song can be sung as a round (music), round when each part starts two bars after the previous one. It ma ...

" (derived from "

Scotland's Burning "Scotland's Burning", also known in England as "London's Burning", is a variant of a song and nursery rhyme popular with children. Words The song can be sung as a round when each part starts two bars after the previous one. It may be an example ...

"); Mokum 700, an exhibit in the

RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre, formerly Amsterdam RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre or simply RAI Amsterdam (Dutch pronunciation: , acronym for ''Rijwiel en Automobiel Industrie''), is a complex of conference and exhibition halls in the Zu ...

celebrating the 700th anniversary of Amsterdam in 1975; ''Mokum in Hi-Fi'', an album by Ben van Gelder and Reinier Baas; and "Mama Mokum", a song from 1997 about Amsterdam, by

Ramses Shaffy Ramses Shaffy (29 August 1933 – 1 December 2009) was a Dutch-French singer and actor who became popular during the 1960s. His most famous songs include "Zing, vecht, huil, bid, lach, werk en bewonder", "We zullen doorgaan", "Pastorale", "Samm ...

."Ramses '97"

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

. Retrieved 2020-02-11.

References

{{Amsterdam Alternative place names Culture in Amsterdam Delft Dutch words and phrases Hebrew words and phrases History of Amsterdam History of Berlin

Mokum ''Mokum'' (מקום) is the Yiddish language, Yiddish word for "place" or "safe haven". It is derived from the Hebrew language, Hebrew word ''makom'' (מקום, "place"). In Yiddish, the names for some cities in the Netherlands and Germany we ...

Rotterdam Yiddish culture in Germany Yiddish culture in the Netherlands Yiddish words and phrases