"E-mama enters the dictionary"

2 August 2007

BRUSSELS – E-mama, the word coined by Open VLD politician Patricia Ceysens to refer to a young mother who combines raising children with telecommuting from home via the internet, has been accepted by the editorial team of the Van Dale, the most authoritative dictionary of the Dutch language.

In 2004 Patricia Ceysens published her book entitled E-mama, in which she championed e-working, or e-commuting: parents can sometimes work more efficiently and cheaply at home using the internet and e-mail. This makes it easier for them to care for young children.

“The word e-mama did not just come out of the blue,” Ceysens says. “I had to search for it because I wanted exactly the right term: a word that encompasses the whole meaning. And then I thought of E-mama, as in a mother that sends a lot of emails. I had to fight for that word and received a lot of criticism for it. Not only the word provoked resistance here and there, the idea behind it did as well.”

“But I noticed that the word still stuck. People started to use it spontaneously, I came across it in articles. It became a real word! So then I wrote a letter to Van Dale. They have now informed my that the words e-mama, e-papa and e-werken will be included in the Van Dale.”

Subject: Belgian news

“E-mama enters the dictionary”