I see your point but isn't "eerlijk" simply "honesty"? I do get that there's a reputation when it comes to honesty and that it can be tarnished. But I don't think it maps 1 to 1 to honor.
I thought that honor could also be about that if one gets insulted that the insulted person would start a fight because his honor was insulted (apparently this happens in the south of the US a lot, according to psychological experiments [1]). I remember when this happened to me. Someone in SF said "fuck you" at point blank range with no reason. I simply ignored him, I didn't get all up in his face. But apparently, people from the south do that to defend their honor.
> I see your point but isn't "eerlijk" simply "honesty"?
I mean, in current usage, probably yes. In English the words do not seem related, but in Dutch it seems that lying is/was considered dishonorable. Dutch people certainly seem straightforward compared to other people I’ve met.
I guess different nationalities consider different things as affecting their honor.
“It’s not honorable.” could translate to “Het is niet eerlijk.”
E.g. het is niet eerlijk om je werkgever te vertellen dat je 8 uur werkt maar maar 4 uur te werken.
Of course, I think the original relation with the word ‘eer’ has been lost and it’s mostly it’s own thing now.