The Influence of Low Dutch on the English Vocabulary

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Chapter X
The Low Dutch in the Brewing Industry

10. 1.^{10. 1.}

From Old English times the brewing of malt liquor was universally practised, every village supplying its own wants. The ale of the Middle Ages, however, differed from our modern ales and beers in that it had no other ingredients than malt, water, yeast, and barm; it was rather a sweet wort of the consistency of barley-water.

A new variety of malt liquor was introduced from Flanders at the end of the 14th century, and in the brewing of this new beer hops were used. It seems to have been imported into Winchelsea as early as 1400. At first it was brewed entirely by foreigners and seems to have been consumed mainly by them. The term ‘beer’ seems to have been applied to this new liquor and the term ‘ale’ restricted to the older-fashioned brew. This beer was at first very unfavourably regarded, on the grounds that it was not fit to drink and that it caused drunkenness, and so bitter were the attacks made on it that in 1436 a writ had to be addressed to the sheriffs of London to proclaim that all brewers of beer shall continue to brew in spite of the malevolent attacks made to prevent natives of Holland and Zeeland and others from doing so. The consumption of beer soon became considerable and was due in all likelihood to the large foreign colony in London. When provisions were sent to Henry V at the siege of Rouen in 1418, 300 tuns of ‘ber’ were sent from London as against 200 tuns of ale.

The brewing of beer was introduced into the Sussex ports by Low Countrymen. In the church of the village of Playder near Winchelsea may still be seen the tomb of Cornelius Zoetmann, with its curious ornamentation of two beer barrels and a crossed mash-stick and fork. By the middle of the 15th century large quantities of hops were being imported into Winchelsea and Rye, and a little later beer was being exported from the Sussex ports and also from the Dorset port of Poole. By 1441 the brewing of beer had become of sufficient importance to demand inspection and control, and inquiries were made as to the regulations in force abroad.

The beer brewers we hear of in the 15th century have almost

10. 1. Salz. 285-98; A.I. 217; Abram, 6-7.

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all Low Dutch, names; e.g. John Doys of St. Botolphs-outside-Aldgate and Gerard Sconeburgh of Southwark were proceeded against in 1473 for theft; their sureties were Godfrey Speryng and Edward Dewysse, also beer brewers; Henry VII granted letters of denization to Hilary Warner, ‘bere-bruer’, a native of Germany.

The prejudice against beer was slower in disappearing in the country towns than in London. At Norwich in 1471 the use of hops and ‘gawle’ in brewing was forbidden; in 1519 the use of the ‘wicked and pernicious weed hops’ was also prohibited at Shrewsbury; as late as 1531 the royal brewer was forbidden to use hops and ‘brimstones’.

In 1531, however, an Act was passed exempting alien brewers from the penal statutes against foreigners practising their trades in England; it also allowed beer brewers to employ two coopers while restricting the ale brewers to one. From this time on the industry grew in importance, and alien brewers, such as the Leakes of Southwark, amassed great wealth. Englishmen now entered the industry, but we still hear of Dutch brewers in the reign of James I. Improvements in the art continued to be brought from the Low Countries; Sebastian Brygonne, a German, set up a new kind of furnace for brewing in the reign of Elizabeth, and a patent for a similar invention was applied for by Stowghberghen.

10. 2.

A few brewing terms of Low Dutch origin appear previous to the introduction of beer brewing at the end of the 14th century. Scum (a. 1250, Prov. of Alfred, but in this text the word is of doubtful meaning and identity; the first certain occurrence is 1340, Ayenbite), foam, froth, bubbles; not from an OE. *scūm, or else the Eng. would have had initial sh-, nor is it recorded in ON.; the word was probably taken from Low Dutch as a term of brewing; the Low Dutch forms are MLG. schûm (whence M.Sw., Sw., Norw., Da. skum), M.Du. schuum, schûme (Du. schuim); for the shortening of the vowel in Eng. compare thumb and plum.

Gyle-house, Gylhous (1334-5, Durh. Acc. Rolls), a brewhouse. Gyle-fat (1341, Test. Ebor.), the vat in which wort is left to ferment; the comb. of gyle with fat, of OE. origin, points to an introduction of gyle considerably earlier than its first recorded occurrence. Gyling (1411) is used only attributively in gyling-house, -ker, -tub, -fat. Gyle (1594, Plat, Jewel Ho.),

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‘a brewing’, the quantity brewed at one time; (c. 1440, Pr. Parv., ‘gyylde or newe ale’), wort in process of fermentation; ad. Du. gijl (earlier in Kilian ghijl is defined as ‘chylus, cremor cereuisiae’); appears a century earlier in combs. than as a separate word. Gyle-ker (1573, Lanc. and Chesh. Wills), a tub or other vessel for holding wort; a comb. of gyle and kier, from ON. ker, a tub.

Kit (1375, Barbour), a circular wooden vessel made of hooped staves; apparently ad. M.Du. kitte, of the same meaning (Du. kit, a tankard).

Two words appear in the 15th century. Bung (c. 1440, Pr. Parv.), a stopper for the hole in a barrel; O.E.D. compares with M.Du. bonghe, a stopper, esp. a large stopper for the mouth of a cask; bung is probably from M.Du., and its earliest instance, in the Pr. Parv., is all in favour of this origin. Keel (1485, Naval Acc. Hen. VII), a tub or vat for holding liquor; probably ad. MLG. kelle, a ladle, tub, or M.Du. kele, keel; this word may have entered English as a sea term of the provisioning of ships.

Brewery (1658, Hexham), a house for the purpose of brewing; this word seems to have been a creation of Hexham's after Du. brouwerije, which he translates by it; it afterwards found such acceptance as ultimately to supersede the original English Brewhouse. Back (1682), a large, shallow vessel, chiefly for liquids, a tub, trough, vat, cistern, esp. those used by brewers, dyers, and picklers; ad. Du. bak (M.Du. bac(k), ad. F. bac), ferryboat, punt, also a trough, basin, mash-tub. Beck (1828) is probably a variant of Back, though perhaps influenced by Du. bekken, basin, bowl.

10. 3.

It is curious how many of the terms of brewing are names of vessels used in the industry. These may equally well have come in as terms of the cooper's craft. It is impossible, however, to separate coopering from brewing, of which it was an auxiliary trade. The alien brewers certainly brought over their own coopers with them; in 1523 the coopers were specially mentioned in a statute by which ‘no stranger was to have an alien apprentice or to have more than two alien journeymen’, and ‘they were not to work apart from Englishmen, but in such a fashion that natives might learn all the secrets of their trades’.

Cooper (c. 1415), a craftsman who makes and repairs wooden vessels formed of staves and hoops, as casks, buckets, tubs, &c.;

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it is not an English derivative of coop, which, so far as appears, has never had the sense ‘cask’; the word is apparently of Low Dutch origin and may be ad. M.Du. cuper or MLG. kuper.

Clapholt (1477), small pieces of split oak as used by coopers for cask staves; this word probably came in as a term of the timber trade and is there included (see Clapholt and Clapboard, p. 47).

Howel (1846), a plane with a convex sole used by coopers for smoothing the insides of casks; probably of LG. origin (M)LG. hövel (G. hobel). The vb. is from the sb., Howel (1864), to smooth with a howel.

10. 4.

Three words have entered with the hop trade, Hop, East, variant of oast, and Cockle. As hops were imported from abroad for use in brewing before they were cultivated in this country, ‘hop’ itself is probably a term of brewing, while the other two are terms of the cultivation and preparation of hops.

Hop (c. 1440, Pr. Parv.), the ripened cones of the female hop plant; usually found in the plural; ad. M.Du. hoppe (Du. hop). East (1491), a kiln, later a kiln for drying malt or hops; the forms are: 15th-century est, 17th-century east and eest, and they exist as a dial. form beside oast from OE. āst; of Low Dutch origin, probably introduced from Flanders; Du. has eest, formerly also eist, MLG. eist; in the first instance the word may have been a term of malting only, and perhaps must be considered as a term of brewing and not of the hop trade. Cockle (1688), the fire chamber or furnace of a hop or malt kiln, also called ‘cockle-oast’; (1774), a kind of stove for heating apartments; possibly ad. 16th-century Du. kakel, kaeckel, kachel (Du. kachel), a stove, and O.E.D. quotes Kilian and Plantijn in support; the word is probably of much earlier borrowing than the first record suggests; it is possible that the word was borrowed independently in the two different senses.