Re: Expressions with 'Dutch' in the English language
ax...@white-eagle.invalid.uk
> There are a number of expressions in English with the word 'Dutch''.
> Some of them have a neutral meaning (e.g. Dutch doors} whereas other
> expressions heve a negative meaning, e.g.'Dutch courage' / 'to talk like
> a Dutch uncle'.
> I wonder if anyone in the newsgroup could explain why there are quite a
> number of these negative expressions.
> We - the Dutch- are nice people, aren't we.......?
There is a whole book(let) deveoted to the use of 'Dutch' in
expressions. Unfortunately I do not have a copy and cannot remember
the details as I only glanced through it once a few years ago.
Cross posted to doc.culture.netherlands in case anyone there can
help.
Axel
Heinrich
<ax...@white-eagle.invalid.uk> schreef in bericht
news:_Iiue.46294$Vj3....@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
become common in English.
Double Dutch: Language that cannot be understood, gibberish, as in They
might have been speaking double Dutch, for all I understood. This usage
dates from the 1870s.
Dutch Courage: False courage acquired by drinking liquor, as in He had a
quick drink to give him Dutch courage. This idiom alludes to the reputed
heavy drinking of the Dutch - as long as someone else is buying, that is.
Dutch Bargain: A bargain concluded by drinking (heavily) together
Dutch treat: A party, outing, etc. to which each person contributes.
Dutch uncle: A person giving advice with benevolent firmness.
Dutch wife: A framework of cane etc., or a bolster, used for resting the
legs in bed - note, in Japan this means a sex toy.
see this link:
http://www.bootsnall.com/europetravelguides/a_dam/feb02a_dam.shtml
Dutch act
Suicide.
Dutch auction
An auction in which the auctioneer offers the goods at gradually
decreasing prices, the first bidder to accept becoming the purchaser; to
reverse the process of a normal auction.
Dutch bargain or wet bargain
A bargain settled over drinks, the Dutch being formerly reputed to be
steady drinkers.
Dutch barn
A farm building with a curved roof on a frame that has no walls.
Dutch clover
White clover, a valuable pasture plant.
Dutch collar
A horse collar.
Dutch Colonial
Characterised by a gambrel roof with overhanging eaves.
Dutch comfort
Cold comfort, i.e. things might have been worse.
Dutch concert
A great noise and uproar, like that made by a party of drunken Dutchmen,
some singing, others quarrelling, speechifying, etc.
Dutch courage
The courage exerted by drink; pot valour. The Dutch were considered heavy
drinkers.
Dutch cousins
Close friends, a play upon cousins german.
Dutch defence
A sham defence.
Dutch door
A door divided horizontally so that the lower or upper part can be shut
separately.
Dutch elm disease
A disease of elms caused by an ascomycetous fungus (Ceratocystis ulmi) and
characterised by yellowing of the foliage, defoliation, and death.
Dutch generosity
Stinginess.
Dutch gleek
Tippling. Gleek is a game and the name implies that the game loved by
Dutchmen is drinking.
Dutch headache
Hangover.
Dutch hoe
A scuffle hoe, a garden hoe that has both edges sharpened and can be
pushed forward or drawn back.
Dutch leaf
False gold leaf.
Dutch gold, Dutch metal
"German" gold, an alloy of copper and zinc, yellow in colour, which is
easily tarnished unless lacquered. Imitation gold leaf is made from it,
hence the name Dutch leaf. It is also called Dutch metal.
Dutch mineral
Copper beaten out into very thin leaves.
Dutch nightingales
Frogs.
Dutch oven
1. A heavy iron cooking pot with close fitting lid.
2. A tin hanging screen for cooking before a kitchen range or ordinary
fire grate.
3. A brick oven in which the walls are preheated for cooking.
4. A prank where one farts under a blanket while holding a victim there.
Dutch roll
A combination of directional and lateral oscillation of an aeroplane.
Dutch rub
To rub your knuckles across the top of someones head whilst holding
their head under your other arm.
Dutch talent
That which is not done in true nautical and shipshape fashion, more the
result of brawn than brain.
Dutch treat
A meal, amusement, etc., at which each person pays for himself (i.e. not a
treat at all). To go Dutch has the same meaning.
Dutch widow
A prostitute.
Dutch wife
An open frame constructed of cane, originally used in the Dutch East
Indies and other hot countries to rest the limbs in bed; also a bolster used
for the same purpose. Called thus because it was round, fat and just lay
there.
In at least Japan, but probably also elsewhere, a sex doll.
Dutched
Cancelled.
Dutchman's breeches, or sailor's trousers
Two patches of blue appearing in a stormy sky giving the promise of better
weather, i.e. enough blue sky to make a Dutchman (or sailor) a pair of
breeches.
Dutchman's draught
A "big swig", a copious draught; one of the many allusions to the
Dutchman's reputed fondness for heavy drinking.
Dutchman's log
A rough method for finding a ship's speed by throwing a piece of wood,
etc., into the sea well forward and timing its passage between two marks on
the vessel of known distance apart.
Double Dutch
1. Gibberish or jargon, as of infants or of a foreign tongue not
understood by the hearer.
2. The jumping of two jump ropes rotating in opposite directions
simultaneously.
Flying Dutchman
A ghost ship. A sailor who sees a Flying Dutchman will die before reaching
home.
To go Dutch
See Dutch treat.
His Dutch is up
His dander is riz.
I'm a Dutchman if I do
A strong refusal.
If not, I'm a Dutchman
Used to strengthen an affirmation or assertion.
In Dutch
In trouble, out of favour, under suspicion.
The Dutch have taken Holland
A quiz when anyone tells what is well known as a piece of good news.
To talk like a Dutch uncle
To reprove firmly but kindly. The Dutch were noted for their discipline.
Well, I'm a Dutchman!
An exclamation of strong incredulity.
Pennsylvania Dutch
Not Dutch at all, but rather Deutsch, i.e. German, descendants (both the
language and the people) of German settlers in Pennsylvania
Dutch disease
The deindustrialization of a nation's economy that occurs when the
discovery of a natural resource raises the value of that nation's currency,
making manufactured goods less competitive with other nations, increasing
imports and decreasing exports. The term originated in Holland after the
discovery of North Sea gas.
http://homepages.cwi.nl/~sjoerd/dutch.html
Annie7
I'll stick to English. Don't want to be accused of Double-Dutch. The Dutch
are attributed with penny-pinching or not wanting to outlay much money(like
the Scots). This is possibly undeserved. That is where the expression 'Go
Dutch' comes from. Another verse I have come across is:
"In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch,
is giving too little and asking too much."
My father is pretty tight in that department but his family in Holland are
very generous.
Fustigator
2005 23:43:36 -0400, in littera
<717618a5b00a71a1...@localhost.talkaboutculture.com> in
foro soc.culture.netherlands (et aliis) vere scripsit quod sequitur:
>My father is Dutch though I reside in Australia. My Dutch is niet goode so
>I'll stick to English. Don't want to be accused of Double-Dutch.
Nice fellings of you: simple-Dutch is already bad enough!:-)))))
> The Dutch
>are attributed with penny-pinching or not wanting to outlay much money(like
>the Scots). This is possibly undeserved. That is where the expression 'Go
>Dutch' comes from. Another verse I have come across is:
>"In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch,
>is giving too little and asking too much."
>My father is pretty tight in that department but his family in Holland are
>very generous.
Lots of un pleasant things have been said in the UK about the Duch in
the 17-18th century when Holland was the biggest challenger of the
British commerce and the coming empire.
Pure slander, of course.
I can judge objectively, being neither Dutch nor British.
--
Fusti
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}
<42b9bdde$0$12605$7566...@cachenews.cambrium.nl>
Hein...@Ruhrgas.tk "Heinrich" wrote:
> Dutch elm disease
> A disease of elms caused by an ascomycetous fungus (Ceratocystis ulmi) and
> characterised by yellowing of the foliage, defoliation, and death.
There's no hint of opprobium attached to that (other than the fact that
the Dutch allowed the virus to multiply in their own trees, before it
managed to export itself elsewhere. However, at that time, no one
realized just how dangerous the fungus/beetle was.
> Dutch gleek
> Tippling. Gleek is a game and the name implies that the game loved by
> Dutchmen is drinking.
Why make that assumption? Gleek (or, in some dialects, glaik) does
indeed imply the playing of games (IIRC, the word has Viking roots).
What makes you believe that the Dutch drink to play (I always thought it
was exactly the reverse ;-)
--
Brian {Hamilton Kelly} b...@dsl.co.uk
"Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu
le loisir de la faire plus courte."
Blaise Pascal, /Lettres Provinciales/, 1657
Annie7
Fustigator
2005 23:48:16 -0400, in littera
<b5b47b1d85080a7c...@localhost.talkaboutculture.com> in
foro soc.culture.netherlands (et aliis) vere scripsit quod sequitur:
>Ok Fustigator, no need to be so picky.
OK OK.. dear !
>What does fustigator mean, anyway?
The on who fustigates ...futther:
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--
Fusti