Oranjes: Dutch references in English

Dutch references in English

Introduction

There's a considerable amount of Dutch references in English and for such a small nation that's quite an achievement. What's the reason of it? Gary Martin, the author of the website http://www.phrases.org.uk, proposes two explanations. Looking at the map you can see that the distance (or to be more specific lack of it) between these two nations is one of them.

But that wouldn't be enough, would it? There has to be another reason, and it's two nations’ inclination towards sailing. Both Great Britain and the Netherlands are famous for their maritime traditions, and having a large fleet means frequent opportunities for contact in the field of trade and war.

Examples of commodities that were given Dutch names

Thanks to trade connections, many Dutch words were picked up by the Englishmen and many commodities imported from the Netherlands were given Dutch names. All these examples are to be found for the first time in the 18^th century (it has to be said that there are many more).

Dutch cheese – that's quite obvious, isn't it?

Dutch door – “a door divided into two parts, horizontally, so arranged that the lower part can be shut and fastened, while the upper part remains open”. ^[1]

Dutch oven - a Dutch oven is a thick-walled cooking pot. In Dutch it's called a braadpan. In the late 17th century, Dutch cooking vessels were better than British, so they were imported from the Netherlands. Dutch ovens were loved by colonists and settlers because of their durability and versatility. They could be used for any cooking activities: baking, boiling, frying, roasting, stewing...^[2]

“Dutch” in English phrases

When it comes to the phrases containing the word „Dutch”, we must remember that the two empires were competing for hundreds of years. In the 17th and 18th centuries the tension was at its highest, which resulted in the Anglo-Dutch wars. Therefore, the Dutch were rather despised among the British at the time. That's why the majority of the phrases has negative connotations.

The following phrases, which are to be found in The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), brilliantly show the former English attitude towards Dutch people.

Dutch bargain – a bargain concluded by the parties drinking together - first recorded in 1654.

Dutch defence - when the defendant wants to get off free by deceitfully betraying others – 1749.
Dutch comfort – comfort that is only good because it could have been worse - 1796.
Dutch metal/Dutch gold - a cheap alloy of metals that looks like gold - 1825.
Dutch courage – courage induced by drink - 1826.
Dutch treat - each person pays for himself/herself so no treat at all - 1887.
Dutch feast - where the entertainer gets drunk before his guest. - 1785.

Why so stereotypical?

All of these phrases are fairly old, so here comes another question – why have these stereotypical phrases endured so long in English?

To quote Gary Martin once again, it has something to do with the Germans.

But firstly, a short revision of the development of the Germanic languages.

I think it's a problem regarding English terminology. The above table is in Dutch and, as you can see, there is a clear distinction between three Continental Germanic languages: Nederlandse (spoken in the Netherlands), Plat Duitse (spoken in northern Germany), and Hoog Duitse (spoken in southern Germany). However, in English, 'Dutch' in its archaic form meant the German language, in any of its forms or, as an adjective, of or relating to the people of Germany^.^[OED]_.

In consequence, terms such as Dutch, Low Dutch or High Dutch might have been easily confused because “the English language did not distinguish Netherlanders from other speakers of Low Dutch”.^[3]

The phrase Double Dutch seems to confirm this theory. It means nonsense, gibberish - a language one cannot understand^[OED]. However, its obsolete form was High Dutch ^[OED] so it was rather an insult towards the Germans.

This semantic overlap might have lasted in the British collective memory, and phrases containing the word Dutch probably strengthened their position in the language in the 20^th century, when Germany was the UK's biggest rival.

English words of Dutch origin

Finally, the third category. Here are some of the English words (it would be difficult to cover all of them) that come from Dutch.^[4]

English	Dutch
Ice skates	Schaatsen
Ahoy	Hoi (hi, hello)
Boss	Baas
Bow (front of a ship)	Boeg (there are many other naval terms of Dutch origin)
Cookie	Koekje
Cruise	Kruisen (to cross, sail to and fro)
Landscape	Landschap
Mannequin	Manneken (Brabantian word from Dutch mannetje – little man)
Trigger	Trekker (from trekken - to pull)
Waffle	Wafel
Wreck	Wrak
Yankee	Jan Kees (common Dutch name)

Another fact worth knowing is that many place names (especially in New York state) are of Dutch origin, for example Bronx (named for Jonas Bronck)^[5], Brooklyn (from Breuckelen, a province of Utrecht)^[6], or Harlem (from Haarlem, a city in the Netherlands).^[7]All of them come from the colonial era.

Reversed tendency

Nowadays, when English has become the world's lingua franca, there is a rising number of loanwords from English in the Dutch language. I dare to say that this phenomenon has never been occurring so fast and on such a big scale. Just take a look at these new words added to Van Dale dictionary this year: fucker, wazzup, selfie, storytelling, mindfuck.^[8]

Here's an impressively long list of Dutch verbs of English origin: https://onzetaal.nl/taaladvies/advies/engelse-werkwoorden

Of course there are also English words that were borrowed relatively long time ago, the words baby (recorded for the first time in Dutch in 1875)^[9] and computer (recorded in 1957)^[10] being a good example. Both words have become fully accepted by now, and this is probably what will happen to some of the loanwords that currently are still thought to be questionable.

Sources:

^[1]Webster's International Dictionary of the English Language 1890

^[2]John G. Ragsdale, Dutch Ovens Chronicled

^[3]T. Adam, Germany & Americas

^[4]http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=dutch&searchmode=none – lista zapożyczeń i zwrotów zawierających "Dutch"

^[5]http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Bronx&allowed_in_frame=0

^[6]http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Brooklyn&allowed_in_frame=0

^[7]http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Harlem&allowed_in_frame=0

^[8]http://nieuwewoorden.vandale.nl

^[9]http://www.etymologiebank.nl/trefwoord/baby

^[10]http://www.etymologiebank.nl/trefwoord/computer

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/double-dutch.html