{"id":1406,"date":"2009-05-14T13:17:22","date_gmt":"2009-05-14T12:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1406"},"modified":"2009-05-14T13:17:22","modified_gmt":"2009-05-14T12:17:22","slug":"why-are-we-so-tough-on-the-dutch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=1406","title":{"rendered":"Why are we so tough on the Dutch?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I was recently having dinner with some friends including a woman from The Netherlands. I commented that it was strange that the English language contains so many words and phrases that make unkind reference to the Dutch. After all, the Dutch are known for being affable, tolerant, and English speakers.  My Dutch friend was surprised to hear this and the British colleagues present appeared to doubt my assertion. So consider these terms &#8211; not all actively in use today &#8211; which are present in the English vocabulary:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dutch courage = that brought about by drink\n<li>Dutch treat = a social event where everyone pays for themselves\n<li>To go Dutch = when you pay for yourself\n<li>Dutch feast = one where the host gets drunk before the guests\n<li>Dutch comfort = cold comfort\n<li>Dutchman&#8217;s draught = a big swig of alcohol\n<li>Dutch bargain = one settled over drinks\n<li>Dutch auction = one in which the price progressively declines\n<li>Dutch concert = a great noise and uproar like that made by drunken Dutchmen\n<li>Dutch defence = a sham defence\n<li>Dutch gold = an alloy of copper and zinc\n<li>Dutch nightingales = frogs\n<li>Dutch talent = more the result of brawn than brain\n<li>In Dutch = in trouble\n<li>To talk double Dutch = to speak rubbish\n<li>To talk like a Dutch uncle = to reprimand\n<li>Dutch have taken Holland = statement of the well known as if it is wonderful news\n<li>I&#8217;m a Dutchman if I do = a strong refusal\n<li>If not, I&#8217;m a Dutchman = used to strengthen an assertion\n<li>Well, I&#8217;m a Dutchman = an exclamation of strong incredulity<\/ul>\n<p>The origin of all these derogatory terms is the Anglo-Dutch war of the 17th century. Ironically England has historically spent far longer in conflict with the French, but there are nowhere near as many unkind terms referring to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was recently having dinner with some friends including a woman from The Netherlands. I commented that it was strange that the English language contains so many words and phrases that make unkind reference to the Dutch. After all, the Dutch are known for being affable, tolerant, and English speakers. My Dutch friend was surprised [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}