[Lexicog] "Dutch"

[Chaz and Helga Mortensen]

The "Dutch" sayings may in fact be American English. In the area around
New York City, there were many Dutch who immigrated sometime in the
1700s if I am not mistaken. The best known of these people was Peter
Stuyvesant. There continues to be a fairly strong Dutch influence there
as well as in western Michigan, northwest Iowa and southern California
more recently. What probably happened is that those from English
backgrounds tended to label things "Dutch" if they appeared to be
strange or foreign and the sayings just stuck. We have "Dutch treat"
(date where man and woman each pay their own way), "Dutch oven" (an
iron pot with a cover that holds hot coals), "Dutch coke" (a cola drink
without the ice), "double Dutch" (a jump-rope game), and "Dutch" as a
nickname: Ronald Reagan, a cousin of mine, and my grandmother's dog.

It is widely known that President Theodore Roosevelt had the penchant
for calling foreign things "Dutch", even though his surname betrayed
his origin.

-Chaz



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