An epithet of inferiority. A witness, no doubt, to the long-standing hatred engendered by the bitter fight for the supremacy of the seas between England and Holland in the seventeenth century.
Subs. (common).—A wife. [Probably an abbreviation of DUTCH CLOCK.]
ENGLISH SYNONYMS.—Mollisher; rib; grey-mare; warming-pan; splice; lawful blanket; autem-mort; comfortable impudence; comfortable importance; old woman; evil; missus; lawful jam; yoke-fellow; night-cap; legitimate, or legiti; weight-carrier; mutton-bone; ordinary; pillow-mate; supper-table; Dutch clock; chattel; sleeping-partner; doxy; cooler; mount; bed-fagot.
FRENCH SYNONYMS.—Une marque de cé (thieves’); une légitime (fam. = legitimate); mon gouvernement (pop. = my old woman); mon associée (printers’ = my partner); mon bien (popular, bien = chattel); une gerce (thieves’: also a mattress).
GERMAN SYNONYMS.—Keibe, Keibel, Keife (also = woman or concubine: from O. H. G. Chebisa, M. H. G. Kebese, Kebse = illegitimate); Krönerin (literally a ‘horneress’; Kröne = to be provided with horns); Rammenin (Hanoverian: from the gypsy romnin).
TO DO A DUTCH, verb. phr. (military).—To desert; to run away. For synonyms, see AMPUTATE.
THAT BEATS THE DUTCH, phr. (common).—A sarcastic superlative.
1775. A Camp Song [The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, April 1857], p. 191.
| And besides all the mortars, bombs, cannon and shells, | |
| And bullets and guns—as the news-paper tells, | |
| Our cargoes of meat, drink and cloaths BEAT THE DUTCH. | |
| Now who wou’d not tarry and take t’other touch. |
TO TALK DUTCH, DOUBLE-DUTCH, or HIGH-DUTCH, verb. phr. (common).—To talk gibberish; by implication, nonsense.
1604. MARLOWE, Doctor Faustus, Sc. iv. Wag. Villain—call me Master Wagner, and let thy left eye be diametarily fixed upon my right heel, with quasi vestigiis nostris insistere. Clown. God forgive me, he SPEAKS DUTCH FUSTIAN.
1790. DIBDIN, The Sweet Little Cherub.
| And, my timbers! what lingo he’d coil and belay; | |
| Why ’twas just all as one as HIGH DUTCH. |
1876. C. H. WALL, trans. Molière, vol. I., p. 116. He never taught me anything but my prayers, and though I have said them daily now these fifty years, they are still DOUBLE DUTCH to me.
THE DUTCH HAVE TAKEN HOLLAND, phr. (common).—A quiz for stale news. Cf., QUEEN BESS (or QUEEN ANNE) IS DEAD; THE ARK RESTED ON MOUNT ARARAT, etc.
