[Ads-l] =?iso-8859-1?Q?=A0to_?="dutch"

[Peter Reitan]

I would have assumed a Dutchman for plugging holes was related to sticking one's gong4er in a dike.
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From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2020 1:04:10 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re:  to "dutch"

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: =?utf-8?Q?=C2=A0to_?="dutch"
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> On Dec 30, 2020, at 12:13 PM, James Landau =
<00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:
>=20
> On Sun, Dec 27, 2020, 3:44 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> =
wrote:
>=20
>> But =E2=80=9CDutch treat" figures as part of a much larger set of =
slurs and
>> epithets denigrating the Dutch that stem from the years in which the
>> Britain and Holland were engaged in the =E2=80=9Cherring wars=E2=80=9D =
for supremacy of the
>> North Sea, as itemized in Farmer & Henley, including inter alia:
>>=20
>> Dutch act:  suicide
>> Dutch bargain:  a bargain all on one side
>> Dutch-clock:  a bedpan; a wife
>> Dutch concert/medley:  a raucous hubbub
>> Dutch consolation:  Job=E2=80=99s comfort (=3D =E2=80=9Ccould be =
worse=E2=80=9D)
>> Dutch courage:  pot-valiancy, courage due to intoxication
>> Dutch fuck:  the practice of lighting one cigarette from another
>> Dutch milk:  beer
>> Dutch treat:  an outing at which one pays one=E2=80=99s own way
>> Dutch widow:  a prostitute
>> Dutch wife:  a bolster (on a bed)
> A woman who had traveled extensively in Western Europe told me that =
the Dutch tell jokes about dumb Belgians and the Belgians tell jokes =
about stingy Dutch, e.g. How do you know you are in the Netherlands?  =
When you see toilet paper hanging on clotheslines to dry.
> Hence 1) ethnic stereotypes are not a USA invention and 2) stereotypes =
of the Dutch are not necessarily from the herring wars, as Belgium was =
not involved in them.
> "Dutch fuck" above is unlikely to derive from the herring wars, as I =
do not believe cigarettes had yet been invented.

True enough; my supposition, based on Farmer & Henley=E2=80=99s =
annotation, is that the antipathy exhibited by these expressions (and =
not necessarily the expressions themselves) could be traced to the =
herring wars and could then have generated new insults along the =
familiar lines for centuries thereafter. But I see that F&H=E2=80=99s =
own cite for =E2=80=9CDutch treat=E2=80=9D is indeed from Lippincott=E2=80=
=99s Magazine (Philadelphia), supporting the OED=E2=80=99s supposition, =
along with that of others on this list, that that particular collocation =
is of U.S. (and in particular Pennsylvania Dutch or =E2=80=9CDutch=E2=80=9D=
) origin.=20

LH=20

> Another item for the above list:  "dutchman" in theatrical jargon =
means strips of cloth soaked in glue used to cover joints and holes in =
scenery, also "to dutchman" meaning to apply these strips.I have always =
imagined this was originally an ethnic slur implying the Dutch used this =
technique to cover up cheap or shoddy work.
> An interdating for "Dutch book":, from =
https://jeff560.tripod.com/d.html
> DUTCH BOOK (ARGUMENT) in subjective probability theory. The term =
entered circulation in the 1950s. R. Sherman Lehman explains the term, =
"If a bettor is quite foolish in the choice of the rates at which he =
will bet, an opponent can win money from him no matter what happens. The =
phenomenon is well known to professional bettors--especially bookmakers =
... Such a losing book is known by them as a =E2=80=98dutch book.=E2=80=99=
 Our investigations are thus concerned with necessary and sufficient =
conditions that a book not be =E2=80=98dutch.=E2=80=99" ("On =
Confirmation and Rational Betting," Journal of Symbolic Logic, 20, =
(1955), p. 251.) The classic use of the Dutch book argument to obtain =
the properties of subjective odds is B. De Finetti=E2=80=99s "La =
pr=C3=A9vision: ses lois logiques, ses sources subjectives," Annales de =
l'Institute Henri Poincar=C3=A9, 7, (1937) 1-68. The term "Dutch book," =
however, is not used.=20
>=20
> James Landau
> jjjrlandau at netscape.com
>=20
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