this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2025
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So I never really though about this before this post, but the Dutch name is actually really fucking weird. They're called "pissebedden" here, which is a combination of "pissen" (to pee) and "bedden" (beds). I read that apparently there was a superstition that they would help against bed wetting of you put them in your bed before sleep. I guess that'd help because it'd be hard to sleep with those buggers crawling around in your bed. What's also weird is that the name isn't literally "bed wetters" because then the words should be reversed like "bedpissers" or something. So it's more like "pissybeds" in English.
Idk what tf they were smoking tbh, but it's the normal word for them and is even used on Wikipedia. Li they're talking about the zoetwaterpissebedden (fresh water pissybed) as if this is a reasonable scientific name.
In Danish it is "bench biters"
But I have never seen one eat a bench
Nice but of Dutch etymology. An interesting tidbit is that they share there name with the French for dandelion (which English word come from another French term 'dents de lion' or lions teeth) which are called 'pissenlit' (also 'piss in the bed')
This is because the dandelion has a diuretic effect, it makes one urinate. For the woodlouse it's different, they don't make you piss the bed, but only make it smell like it. They secrete an ammonia like smell, which smells like piss.
source (in Dutch).
Yes pissebed... But we say : verkskes ( little piggies) in my dialect.