Dutch, Do the

September 29th, 2009 by admin

Page 2 of 2 | Previous page

Posted in columns, September 2009 | 5 comments

Previous post:
Next post:

5 comments on this post.

  1. Diana T:

    March 6th, 2009 at 2:57 pm

    I’ve never heard of “Dutch courage”, but I have heard of “Irish courage”, to be the result of drinking. Which didn’t surprise me since there are a lot of alcohol-related terms attributed to the Irish.

  2. Sitting Duck:

    March 8th, 2009 at 6:57 am

    Another of those Dutch terms heard under another nationality would be taking Dutch leave, which I’ve always heard of as taking French leave.

    This particular column brought to mind The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse. You may recall in that one that Bertie is tasked with going to an antiques shop to have a look at a silver cream jug in the shape of a cow his Uncle Tom had reserved and make disparaging remarks about it (to shame the proprietor into lowering the price). One of the things he was instructed to do was to imply that the creamer was modern Dutch. Before having read this column, I had assumed that the Netherlands had a notoriety for producing cheap replicas. Anyone know which interpretation would be correct?

  3. Armine:

    September 6th, 2010 at 10:58 am

    I have come across the term “to take English leave” meaning to leave a party without drawing attention to one’s person. I remember the term “English leave” to imply politeness on the part of the person who leaves, as if he had rather he did not disturb the rest of the company. Do you think my understanding correct?

  4. Diane:

    February 26th, 2011 at 3:51 pm

    Isn’t there a term Dutch uncle?

    Re Wooster, I wonder if the significant word about deriding the pitcher is “modern”, not Dutch, since thus it was not an antique.

  5. Luke Sutton:

    May 31st, 2011 at 6:26 am

    I have heard the phrase “dutch miracle” does anyone know what this means?

Leave a comment