MV>> "Juf" is short for "juffrouw" which means "miss". So a female MV>> teacher.
RB> Sounds like it was derived from the German "Jungfrau",
Could be. Or the other way around.
RB> which originally meant "virgin" but meanwhile is applied to all RB> underage females, although the term is only rarely used nowadays.
And here it differs. "Juffrouw" is an unmarried women. Not necessarily young and not necessesarily a virgin. Just not married. Just like "Jungfrau", "juffrouw" is rarely used these days, but the short form "juf", only used for a female school teacher has survived.
Of course over half a century ago when I was a kid "juf" was usually young and not married, because it was commeon for women to stop working when they got married. Today "juf" just means a female school teacher, independent of age and marital status.
RB> The German term for a female teacher is "Lehrerin" (the "in") at the RB> end indicates "female". A "Lehrer" is a male teacher. Have to make RB> some distinction to avoid calling a woman "Mr." or a man "Ms.".
The more formal terms here are "leraar" en "lerares". "Meester" and "juf" is how the children call their teachers.
