I WILL TALK TO YOU LIKE A DUTCH UNCLE, phr. (common).—I will reprove you smartly. [The Dutch were renowned for the brutality of their discipline. Uncle is the Latin notion of pat’ruus, ‘an uncle,’ ‘severe guardian,’ or ‘stern castigator.’ Hence Horace, 3 Od. xii. 3, Metuentes patruæ verbera linguæ (dreading the castigations of an uncle’s tongue); and 2 Sat. iii. 88, Ne sis patruus mihi (Don’t come the uncle over me). A DUTCH UNCLE = therefore, an uncle of peculiar fierceness.]
1853. Notes and Queries, 1 S., vii., 65. In some parts of America, when a person has determined to give another a regular lecture, he will often be heard to say, I WILL TALK TO HIM LIKE A DUTCH UNCLE; that is, he shall not escape this time.
1869. East Anglian, vol. III., p. 350. [In list of Suffolk sea words]: ‘There were the squires on the bench, but I took heart, and TALKED TO ’EM LIKE A DUTCH UNCLE.’
