The Influence of Low Dutch on the English Vocabulary

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Chapter VII
Low Dutch Influence through Agriculture

7. 1.

There is practically no direct evidence for the Middle English period of Low Dutch influence on the vocabulary of agriculture. Many terms of agriculture were nevertheless borrowed, and these have to be accounted for. Certain large assumptions have to be made, and despite the lack of supporting evidence they are fairly safe. It must be assumed that many of the Flemings who settled in England during the period settled eventually on the land, either in definitely placed colonies like those on the Scottish border and in Pembroke, Gower, and Ross, or in small groups and single families of which no record was ever made. Ralph de Diceto, in describing the effects of Henry II's disbanding of Flemish mercenaries, speaks of the Flemings as driven from the castle to the plough and from camps to workshops. Those who had been drawn from agriculture to the life of a soldier returned to farming when their other occupation was lost, and this probably happened to some extent at every disbandment of Low Country mercenaries. It seems, too, that there must have been a considerable immigration into the eastern counties from the Low Dutch lands opposite across the sea, and many of these immigrants doubtless engaged in agriculture. Again, some of the Low Dutch people who came to England to engage in other trades and crafts might also devote part of their time to farming.

7. 2.^{7. 2.}

During the 17th century there was a very decided increase of knowledge as to the best methods of turning land to good account. New suggestions appear in the numerous agricultural treatises and pamphlets and, as on so many other sides of economic life, Dutch methods were held up as an example. Gabriel Plattes, the first theorist of modern agricultural science in England, whose chief work appeared in 1638, was undoubtedly Dutch in origin, while Simon Hartlib, the friend of Milton and one of the most active publicists of the new movement, was a naturalized Dutchman. The people of Holland

7. 2. Seebohm 230, 241, 268-9, 285, 296, 302, 311-18; I.C. ii. 545-6; A.I. 177, 217: Blok, iv. 91; Life and Work in Modern Europe, by G. Renard and G. Weulersse (trans. M. Richards) (London, 1926), 103-6.

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were not much given to the growing of cereals, but they were skilled in cattle-breeding and dairy-farming, and Englishmen were impressed with the desirability of imitating them, by growing root crops and artificial grasses, so as to have better means of feeding stock during the winter. Root crops appear to have been introduced to some extent as a course of husbandry; Weston refers to them in his Discourse of Husbandrie Used in Brabant (1652). In Elizabeth's time the only new field crop was buckwheat or ‘brank’, which Heresbach observed was brought from North Germany and Russia ‘not long since’; Tusser advocated it as ‘comforting to the land’ and useful for fattening all kinds of stock. The growing of hops was introduced from the Low Countries and had become popular towards the middle of the 16th century.

In the 17th century land was taken up by men who meant to make farming pay as a business proposition, and the result was a flood of experiments and brilliant suggestions foreshadowing the real and practical advance of the following century. The first experiments were not very successful, and though the 17th century had the ideas and the new words which came with them, the practice was mainly left to the 18th century, when there was real progress in filling up the unproductive gap caused by the fallow year. The turnip did not become really important in English farming until after the publication of Jethro Tull's description of the new methods of cultivation in 1731, which made it possible to grow much bigger roots, and until Lord Townshend had proved its value. These men still drew their inspiration from the example of Dutch farmers. Artificial grasses, even clover, just as the roots, at first failed to make headway, though Plattes did indeed recommend sainfoin, and clover seed appeared in price-lists at the end of the 17th century; nothing was known, however, about the selection of seeds and the use of the aftermath. From the middle of the 17th century onward the Dutch ‘trefoil or clover-grass’ was much recommended. Speed in 1659 first mentions cattle-cake made from turnips, and this very advanced idea was borrowed from the Dutch, who bought up English rape-seed, after the oil had been extracted, to make cake for their beasts. Two other field crops were now introduced; the cabbage-turnip or kohl-rabi was brought in by Reynolds of Addisham in Kent in 1767 and the mangel-wurzel later.

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Low Country stock was imported to improve the native English breeds. The short-horned cattle of the east coast seem to have been a breed new to England and were probably introduced from the Netherlands in the 17th century; they are described by Mortimer in 1707 as the ‘long-legged, short-horned Dutch breed of Lincolnshire and Kent’. In Charles I's reign the breed of draught horses was improved by the importation of strong grey Flanders mares. The old black English horses of what was known as the ‘Fen breed’ were much improved early in the 18th century by the importation of six mares sent over from Zeeland by Lord Chesterfield, and Derbyshire took the lead in their successful breeding and other midland counties followed. In dairy-farming the Dutch taught us the arts of fine butter- and cheese-making.

The main improvements in implements came in the 18th century, though Plattes is the first to mention the drill. A much more modern and scientific form of plough was the short, light, Dutch or Yorkshire plough, which was doubtless a development of the ‘Dutch bastard’ of the preceding century and was also a swing plough, but constructed on principles brought from Holland. A machine for winnowing was introduced from Holland about the middle of the century and improved by the father of William Marshall the agriculturist.

In the 17th century the Dutch were noted for their horticulture, and there is every reason to believe that under the guidance of the 17th-century writers who were familiar with Dutch practice a great improvement took place in English gardening. Gardening, both ornamental and kitchen, was scarcely known or, at any rate, systematically practised in England before the time of Elizabeth. The formal fashion which was then introduced from Holland flourished exceedingly and has not yet quite died out. A further impetus to horticulture was given by the religious refugees from the Netherlands; for many of them who came over to practise industrial callings were also skilled gardeners. A great craze for growing and speculating in bulbs sprang up in Holland in the 17th century and reached its climax in 1636; English practice in the growing of bulbs was then dictated by that of Holland, and this has been the position ever since. As an addition to the fruit-garden the modern, large red strawberry was evolved from large varieties introduced from Chile and Carolina by way of Holland in the early 18th century;

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about the same time the Dutch red currant came to be esteemed above the English sort.

7. 3.

A considerable group of words are terms for agricultural implements, tools, and gear of various kinds. Hack (13.., Cursor M.), a tool for breaking and chopping up, variously applied to agricultural tools of the mattock, hoe, and pickaxe type; the word is not found in OE. or ON.; perhaps ad. M.Du. hacke (in Kilian hacke, Du. hak), hoe, mattock, pickaxe, chop. Hepe (1390, Gower), a curved pruning-knife; appears first in Gower in a proverbial expression, ‘so what with hepe and what with crok’, and so is probably much earlier in Eng. than the first recorded date; probably from Low Dutch, which has M.Du. and MLG. hepe, e.mod.Du. heepe, Du. heep, sickle-shaped pruning knife or bill.

Sye (1468), a sieve, strainer; this sb. may be from the vb. sye (OE. sēōn), to sift, or ad. M.Du. sye, sie, or ON. sía. Sift (1490, Pr. Parv.) in the sense, a sieve; perhaps ad. M.Du. sifte, zifte (Du. zift, M.Du. and MLG. sichte). Sight (1559), a sieve or strainer; perhaps ad. LG. sichte. It is possible that sift and sight are the same word with divergent pronunciations. Sighting (1559), the result of straining, strained matter; perhaps ad. LG. sichting, vbl. sb. from sichten, to sift.

Hame (1303, R. Brunne), each of the two curved pieces of wood or metal placed over, fastened to, or forming the collar of a draught horse; it corresponds to and is perhaps ad. M.Du. hame, haem (Du. haam). Slead (1374), sled, sledge; ad. M.Du. or MLG. slede (Du. slede, slee, LG. slede, släde, slee). Brake (1412-20, Lydgate), a bridle or curb; O.E.D. states that it is perhaps identical with brake, a lever or handle for working a machine, or an extended use of break (see Brake, p. 121), or more probably ad. M.Du. braeke, in the sense of ‘a nose-ring for a draught ox’; Mnl. Wdb. has M.Du. brake, chain, curb, and the word may be directly from this. Slipe (c. 1470), a sledge or drag; apparently ad. LG. slîpe, a variant of the usual slêpe, sledge, train. Spancel (1610), sb. and vb., a rope or fetter for hobbling cattle, horses, &c., esp. a short, noosed rope for fettering the hind legs of a cow when milking; ad. Flem., Du., or LG. spansel (Kilian spanssel), from spannen, to span, clasp.

Wan (1615), a winnowing fan; (1825, Brockett, N.C. Gloss.), the sail of a windmill, van; commonly spelt ‘wand’, the word being wrongly supposed to be a corruption of wand, a rod; perhaps ad. Du. wanne, now wan.

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Beguel (1737), O.E.D. says that this word is ad. Du. beugel, iron hoop or ring, bow, cramp iron; this is quite possible, but Bense has failed to find it as a Du. or Flem. term ‘in connection with hops’, in which sense it is used in the only quotation in O.E.D., from Miller's Gard. Dict.; the only senses in which it appears to be used in connexion with agriculture in Du. and Flem. are ‘part of plough’ and ‘a hoop used in making hayricks’.

Cavie (1756, from Sc.), a hencoop, house for fowls; apparently ad. M.Du. kevie (Du. and Flem. kevie, Plantijn has also kavie), cage, coop.

Scaife (1793), a thin iron wheel, sharp at the edge, used in some ploughs in place of or in front of the coulter; perhaps ad. Du. schijf, disk, wheel. Scuffle (1798), scuffler; (1841), a gardener's thrust hoe; ad. Du. schoffel, weeding hoe.

Dannocks (a. 1825, from E. Anglia), the forms are darnocks and dannocks; hedge gloves made of untanned leather; Forby prefers the form darnocks and says that it is a corruption of Dorneck, Dornick, the Flem. name for Tournai.

7. 4.

The following group is of terms dealing with farm crops and weeds. Finkle (c. 1265), fennel; ME. fenecel, ultimately from L. faeniculum, but the immediate source is probably Low Dutch, from M.Du. venekel, also veenkel, vinkel, veneco(o)l (Du. vinkel).

Crap (c. 1440, Pr. Parv.), the husk of grain, chaff, &c.; (c. 1425), the name of some plant, buckwheat, and various weeds among corn, as darnel, charlock; (1490-9, Pr. Parv.), the residue formed in rendering, boiling or melting, fat; O.E.D. states that the word is identical with e.mod.Du. krappe, ‘carptus, carptura, res decerpta, frustum decerptum sive abscissum, pars abrasa sive abscissa, pars carnis abscissa, crustum, ofella, offula, placenta, pulpamentum’ (Kilian), and connected with krappen, to pluck off, cut off, separate, and compares E. crape, OF. crappe, siftings, also the grain trodden under foot in the barn and mingled with the straw and dust; O.E.D. observes that it is doubtful whether all the senses belong to one word, though a common notion of ‘rejected or left matter, residue, dregs, dust’ runs through them; M.Du. crappe, crap meant in general ‘roast meat’, but Du. krap has also the senses a part broken or torn off a larger whole, residue formed in rendering fat, grains which remain among the chaff, coal cinders; it is probable that M.Du. had some of these senses, though not

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recorded, and if this is so, it is likely that the ME. word was borrowed from M.Du.; the only sense difficult to account for is that of ‘the name of some plant and of various weeds’, and this may be a different word.

Fimble (1484, from Wigtoft, Boston), the male plant of hemp, producing a weaker, shorter fibre; ad. Du. femel (LG. fimel), ad. F. (chanvre) femelle, lit. ‘female hemp’, this name being popularly applied to what modern botanists call the male plant.

Succory (1533), the plant found wild in England; its leaves and roots are used medicinally and for food; an alteration of cicoree, sycory, sichorie, old forms of chicory, after MLG. suckerîe, or M.Du. sûkerîe (Du. suikerei, older Flem. suykerey), succory. Rape (1548), a plant name used for rape and for cole-seed; ad. L. rāpum, rāpa, a turnip, but in the obsolete sense of turnip perhaps partly from Du. raap, turnip, rape. Spurrey, Spurry (1577, B. Googe, Heresbach's Husb.), one or other of a species of herbaceous plants or weeds belonging to the genus Spergula, esp. the common species, corn spurrey, occasionally used as fodder for sheep and cattle; ad. Du. spurrie (M.Du. sporie, older Flem. speurie, spurie). Amelcorn (1578, Lyte, Dodoens), an inferior variety of wheat, the larger spelt, called also French rice; ad. Du. amelkorn, from L. amyl-um and corn.

A term of hop cultivation is Bell (sb. 1594, vb. 1574), the strobile, cone, or catkin containing the female flowers of the hop; hops are said to be or begin to be in bell; the fact that in England these words are used of hops, which are chiefly grown in Kent, makes it very probable that the word was introduced there by Flemish labourers; in Flanders the word bel, in the same sense, is used not only of hops but also of oats, at least in Brabant (Bense).

Cabbage-cole (1579), cabbage; it is possible that the Eng. cabbage-cole was really ad. Du. kabuis-kool (from F. cabus, from choux cabus, from L. captuceum, from caput, head), influenced by F. caboche, a derivative of caput. Gherkin (1661, Pepys), a young, green cucumber used for pickling; ad. e.mod.Du. *gurkkijn, *agurkkijn, now gurkje, agurkje, diminutives of agurk, augurk, also gurk, cucumber.

Abele (1681), the white poplar-tree; ad. Du. abeel, abeel-boom, ad. OF. abel, earlier aubal, albel, Nth. F. aubiel, from late L. albellus, diminutive of albus, white; ‘a finer sort of white poplar which

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the Dutch call abele was transported here from Holland’ (Bradley, Farm Dict.); the form ‘abele-tree’ in Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), probably translates Du. abeel-boom; the name ‘Dutch beech’ was formerly used in England for the abele.

Borecole (1712), a variety of cabbage; probably ad. Du. boerenkool; there can be little doubt as to its Du. origin, for it is first used by Arbuthnot in his Hist. John Bull in reference to what the children of Nic. Frog, i.e. Holland, live upon.

Crap (1721), madder, esp. the commercial product obtained by grinding the inner part of the root; ad. Du. krap (M.Du. crappe).

One term which reflects the great Dutch mania of bulb cultivation is Bybloemen (1764), one of the main varieties of the garden tulip; bijbloemen is not recorded in any Du. dictionary, but Mr. E.H. Kuelage of Haarlem informed Bense that tulips called violetten or bijbloemen are white shaded with violet and are in England sometimes called bybloemens, with a double plural in ignorance of the Dutch; these were the tulips which were the subject of a speculation in Holland till 1636, and had another temporary vogue towards the end of the 18th century; the first quotation in the O.E.D. is in 1843, but ‘Bybloomen tulips’ is found in J. Justice's British Gardener's Director, p. 316, and ‘Byblomen’ in J. Maddock's The Florist's Directory, 1764 and 1810 respectively (Bense).

Pulls (1788, W. Marshall), the chaff or husks of rape-seed, pulse or grain; apparently ad. Du. peul (M.Du. pole, peule, puele), husk, shell, pod. Noll-kholl (1812), the turnip-cabbage, kohl-rabi; ad. Du. knolkool or G. knollenkohl. Witloof (1885), chicory, succory; ad. Du. witloof, from wit, white, and loof, leaf.

7. 5.

There remains a large group of miscellaneous terms of farming, dealing chiefly with various farming and gardening operations and with the raising of stock.

The terms of farming operations are: Sod, sb. (c. 1420), a piece or slice of earth with the grass growing on it, cut out or pared off from the surface of grass land; apparently ad. M.Du. sode, soode (Du. zode) or MLG. sode (LG. sode, sudde). The vb. Sod (1653) is from the sb.; to cover or build up with sods or turfs; of. M.Du. soden, zoden, LG. soden, söden, to make sods, lay with sods. Perhaps a term in the manuring of land is Cauk (c. 1440, Pr. Parv.), chalk, lime; it is not clear whether calk,

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cauk is simply the northern form of chalk, OE. cealc, or adopted independently from Low Dutch (M.Du. calc, Du. kalk).

The terms of stock-raising are: Spane (13.., Cursor M.), to wean; (1828), to take root and cast off the seed; ad. OF. espanir or M.Du. and MLG. spanen (MLG. also sponen), apparently related to OE. spana, spona, teat; for the secondary sense compare W.Flem. spanen, spenen, spennen, to set (of fruit). Spean (1595), to wean; this may be a later form of spane or independently ad. M.Du. or MLG. spenen (Du. and Flem. spenen, LG. spenen, spänen). Clyre, Clyer, Clier (1794, from Sc.), a glandular swelling, usually in the plural, as a name of a disease of cattle; corresponds to and may be ad. M.Du. cliere, Du. klier, gland, glandular swelling. Sprue (1825, Jamieson), thrush; (1888), a disease occurring esp. in tropical countries, psilosis; ad. Du. spruw, sprouw (older Flem. sprouwe, W.Flem. sproe, LG. and MLG. sprüwe).

There is one term of poultry-raising: Pip (c. 1440), a disease of poultry; apparently ad. M.Du. pippe (Du. pip, MLG. and E.Fris. pip, LG. pipp).

A few names were borrowed for breeds of pigeons and rabbits. Antwerp (1839), a variety of homing or carrier pigeon; from the name of the Belgian city. Smerle (1869), a variety of the domestic pigeon; ad. Flem. smerle, probably a special application of older smerle, now smerlijn, merlin. Beveren (1919), a breed of rabbit; from the name of the town in Belgium.

There are two gardening terms. Slip (1495), a twig for grafting or planting; (1582), a young person, esp. of slender build; (1440, Pr. Parv.) edge, skirt, or flap of garment; apparently ad. M.Du. or MLG. slippe (Du. and Flem. slip, LG. slip, slippe), cut, slit, strip, lappet, skirt; the first sense of the English word, however, is not recorded in any of these languages. Spit (1507-8, from Suffolk), such a depth of earth as is pierced by the full length of a spade-blade; ad. M.Du. or MLG. spit (Du., LG., and W.Fris. spit).

The following are agricultural terms which admit of no further classification. Bower (c. 1430, Lydgate), a peasant, husbandman; ad. M.Du. bouwer. A later form is Boor (1551); in its literary use the modern Eng. boor is probably from LG. bûr, or Du. boer, and not from OE. gebūr, which survives only in neighbour; the original sense ‘peasant, countryman’ is now obsolete except in the sense ‘a peasant, rustic with lack of refinement

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implied, a country clown’; the word was also used for a Dutch colonist in South Africa and Guiana, but Boer is the form now employed. The feminine of boor is Boorinn (1649, once), from Du. boerin, a peasant woman.