I’M A DUTCHMAN IF I DO, phr. (common).—A strong refusal. [During the wars between England and Holland, Dutch was synonymous with all that was false and hateful; therefore, ‘I would rather be a Dutchman’ = the strongest term of refusal that words could express.]
1855. EARL RUSSELL, Memoirs of Thomas Moore. Cope mentioned a good specimen of English-French, and the astonishment of the French people who heard it, not conceiving what it could mean—‘Si je fais, je fais; mais si je fais, je suis un Hollandais.’ ‘If I do, I do; but IF I DO, I’M A DUTCHMAN.’
