The Influence of Low Dutch on the English Vocabulary

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Chapter XII
The Influence of Low Dutch on the Technical Vocabulary of Various Crafts and Manufactures

12. 1.

A considerable number of words from Low Dutch are technical terms of handicrafts and minor manufactures not important enough to demand separate treatment. Often it is evident at a glance what craft or industry is responsible for a particular word, at other times there is doubt as to the exact channel of introduction, as several separate crafts could equally well have brought in the word. It is impossible in such cases to go beyond the statement that it is a technical term. Such technical terms would be introduced with every fresh industry started or improved in this country by Low Dutch workers, and Low Dutch craftsmen seem to have been prominent in every advance of English material culture. In the reign of Elizabeth particularly, the best hope of bringing about a considerable improvement in English industry at a small cost lay in granting patents to men who had enterprise enough to plant a new art or introduce a new manufacture, and in many of these new industries Low Dutch people were concerned. It is not enough to give details only of those crafts by which it is certain that words were introduced, but it is necessary to give details of all crafts and industries in which Low Dutch people had a share, as for some words the precise mode of entry is uncertain.

12. 2.^{12. 2.}

The men of the Low Countries had a high reputation as builders in the 13th century, and they were brought over to England to do work, even though by that time the art of building in stone had had every chance of taking root in England. Flemish masons worked at Leicester and they were also employed by Bishop Poor at Salisbury, while there is evidence to prove that they had a hand in the building of Llandaff Cathedral and Caerphilly Castle. In other cases, where Flemish fonts are found in churches, it seems possible that the fabric was also due in part to Flemish hands. The continued reliance on foreign skill in this century raises the presumption that the best work of the preceding age had been done by foreign craftsmen. Indeed, skill in any manual art can only be transferred from one land to

12. 2. A.I. 57; I.C. i. 650; Salz. 180; Abram, 7.

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another by transferring the men who practise that art. Again, when we find the presence of Flemish masons, it is perhaps safe to assume the presence of Flemish workers in the other building crafts of carpentry, wood-carving, decorating, and tiling.

From the middle of the 14th century onwards we find with increasing frequency mention of ‘waltyles’ or bricks. For building a new chamber at Ely in 1335 some 18,000 wall-tiles were made at a cost of 12d. the thousand. These bricks seem to have been introduced or reintroduced from Flanders and are frequently called ‘Flaundrestiell’, as for instance in 1357, when 1,000 were bought for a fireplace at Westminster for 3s. 2d. When they were made in this country Flemish tile-makers were probably imported for the purpose, and at first at any rate Flemish bricklayers laid them. In the 15th century men from the Low Countries started the manufacture of bricks in England or, as it is perhaps truer to state, revived an industry which had been practised only sporadically before. They made these bricks very cheaply, so that we find one William Elys supplying 200,000 for the repair of Dover Castle at the rate of 250 for a penny.

Most of the building and construction terms from Low Dutch which appear in Middle English are specifically of carpentry. Spiking (1261), a spike nail; probably ad. M.Du. spiking, synonymous with spiker (see Spiker, below), or denoting some variety of this. Wimble (1295, in non-Eng. context, c. 1325, in Eng. context), a gimlet; ad. AF. wimble, variant of *guimble, represented by the rare 13th-century gymble and the diminutive gimlet, ad. MLG. wiemel (also Flem.), wemel (whence O.Sw. wimla, Da. vimmel), M.Du. wimpel.

Shore (1340, Ayenbite), to prop, support with prop; from the sb. shore, but cf. MLG. and M.Du. schoren. The sb. is a century later, Shore (c. 1440, Pr. Parv.), a prop, strut; late ME. schore is probably ad. MLG. and M.Du. schōre, schāre (Du. schoor), prop, stay. Shelf (c. 1386, Chaucer), a slab of wood fixed in a horizontal position; apparently ad. (M)LG. schelf, shelf, set of shelves (whence also Northern skelf), cognate with OE. scylfe. The Sc. and Nthn. form is Skelf (1396-7), also ad. MLG. schelf. Peg (c. 1440, Pr. Parv.), a pin or bolt made originally of wood; of obscure history, but apparently of Low Dutch origin; the Low Dutch forms are M.Du. pegge, dial. Du. peg, plug, peg, small wooden pin, LG. pigge, peg, also M.Du. pegel, little knob, used as a mark.

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Slip (1498, Test. Ebor.), to cut (a spoon handle) obliquely at the end; (1530), to part from a stock, esp. for the purpose of propagation; ad. M.Flem. or MLG. slippen, to cut, incise, cleave.

Cramp (1503), an iron bar with the end bent to a hook, a grappling iron; (1594), a small bar of metal with the ends bent for holding together two pieces of masonry, timber, &c.; apparently from Low Dutch, which has forms M.Du. krampe (in Kilian and Plantijn also krampe), in Du. replaced by kram. Need-nail (1563), to secure firmly by means of clinched nails; probably ad. LG. *need-nagelen. The sb. is much later, Need-nail (a. 1732), a clinched nail; ad. LG. neednagel (whence Sw. nitnagel, Da. netnagel), from MLG. neden, to clinch (M.Du. nieden). Spiker (1574), a spike-nail; ad. M.Du. or MLG. spīker.

Two terms of carpentry are Crame, sb. and vb. (1614-15, Vestry Bks. Surt.), cramps for coffins, to fasten or mend with cramps; probably from Low Dutch, which has M.Du. crame, Du. kram, cramp, cramp-iron, hook, and Du. krammen, to fasten with cramps. Tafferel (1622-3), a panel, esp. a carved panel; ad. Du. (and M.Du.) tafereel, panel, picture, diminutive of tafel, table, for tafeleel, with dissimilation of l .. l to r .. l; as a term of ship-building this is probably a distinct borrowing (see Tafferel, p. 75).

A term of the wheelwright's craft is Bush (1566), the metal lining for the axle-hole of a wheel; Skeat says it is ad. Du. bus, in the same sense, O.E.D. ad. M.Du. busse, though the word does not appear to have this particular sense in M.Du.; the form is not easy to account for, and O.E.D. refers to a similar change in the final consonant in the early forms of blunderbuss and harquebus. The vb. is from the sb., Bush (1566), to furnish with a bush; O.E.D. says that it appears to have been erroneously associated with F. bouche, mouth, boucher, to stop up, or bouchon, cork, plug, whence the frequent later form bouche; the association with these F. words may in part account for the final consonant of the sb.

Brick-making has brought in two words. Clamp (1596-7), a large quadrangular stack of bricks built for burning in the open air; probably ad. M.Du. and Du. klamp, a heap; the sense in farming, a heap of earth lined with straw, in which potatoes are kept during the winter, is possibly an independent borrowing from Dutch. Clinker (1641, Evelyn, Diary), a very hard kind

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of brick of a pale colour made in Holland and used for paving; (1659), a brick whose surface has been vitrified; in the 17th century the form was clincard, ad. e.mod.Du. klinckaerd (Kilian), Du. and LG. klinker, from klinken, to sound, ring; the suffix -ard has been weakened to -er both in Eng. and Du.

12. 3.^{12. 3.}

Low Dutch people were influential in the various branches of metal working. In the art of the gold- and silversmith we find Edward II shortly after his accession employing a foreigner, as four pounds were paid to Reynold de Berewic, a German goldsmith, for making his privy seal. Aliens were engaged at the Mint from time to time, there being from 200 to 300 employed there under Edward I. The question of the relative skill of German and English craftsmen arose in 1464 as the result of a dispute between Oliver Davy, a citizen of London, and White Johnson, a German, for the cutting of four steel puncheons or dies, and the Englishman was successful.

In the manufacture of guns the Germans and Dutch were particularly expert, and Richard II had Matthew de Vlenk, ‘gonnemaker’, in his service. Godfrey Goykin, one of four ‘gunne meysters’ from Germany who were serving Henry V during the last years of his reign, was employed in 1433 to finish off three great iron cannon, which Walter Thomasson had begun to make. These cannon threw balls of 14, 16, and 18 inches diameter, and so were probably bombards or mortars. In 1497 Cornelys Arnoldson was paid for mending five great serpentines, and for making two new chambers for them. At the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII large purchases of cannon were made abroad, among others from Hans Popenreuter and Lewis de la Fava of Mechlin. Henry VIII instituted a new officer, ‘the provider of the King's instruments of war’, and the post was filled by an alien in his and the succeeding reign. Sundry gun-makers from the Low Countries and Germany settled in Southwark and Blackfriars.

In copper and brass working the town of Dinant was early pre-eminent. In 1453 the town complained that three coppersmiths had secretly left and had emigrated to England, and it was feared that the industry which they had established there would flourish, to the consequent hurt of the trade which had hitherto been carried on between England and Dinant in copper goods. In the 18th century men were brought from

12. 3. Salz. 132-3, 163; A.I. 116, 120, 142, 179; I.C. ii. 84.

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Holland to establish the brass manufacture at Bristol. There is great probability that the rise of Birmingham as an industrial centre was due to the immigration of religious refugees from the Low Countries. It is surely significant that its brass manufacture, along with glass-making and engraving, and the making of needles and cutlery should be arts for which we are by common tradition indebted to these refugees.

Godfrey Box of Liége is credited with the introduction of wire-drawing in 1590. Wire-making was started at Esher in Surrey by Mommer and Demetrius, and a Dutchman opened a wire-mill at Richmond in 1662.

Cutlery had long been made at Sheffield, but the improvement in the manufacture of knives in the 16th century was in all probability due to the settlement of Flemish cutlers under the patronage of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Flemings are said to have begun the manufacture of steel at Shotley Bridge near Newcastle. The making of Spanish needles was introduced into England by a German in 1566.

Three terms for the polishing of metals were introduced into Middle English. Scour (a. 1366, Chaucer, Rom. Rose), to cleanse or polish by hard rubbing with some detergent substance; the word is used figuratively in the Cursor Mundi, 13..; probably ad. M.Du. schūren (Du. schuren, LG. schüren, whence M.Sw. and Sw. skura, Da. skure); Du. has also a vb. schuieren, to brush, probably a dial. variant; the Low Dutch word is probably ad. F. escurer, but direct adoption from F. for the Eng. word is unlikely, as the Eng. form would have been scure. Shore (c. 1440, Pr. Parv.), to scour or cleanse by rubbing; this is apparently a variant of the above; if the source of scour be M.Du. schūren or MLG. schûren, the variation in the initial of shore may be due to dialectal difference in the pronunciation of the Low Dutch word; for the pronunciation of the vowel compare the form score of scour. Slipe (1390, Gower), to make smooth, polish, whet, sharpen; ad. M.Du. slīpen (Du. slijpen) or MLG. slîpen (LG. slîpen), to whet.

There are a few words of the goldsmith's and jeweller's craft. Two of them are names for the products of the gold-beater. Rattle-gold (1508, Acc. Ld. H. Treas. Scotl.), gold leaf or tinsel; ad. e.mod.Du. ratelgoud (Kilian), from ratelen, to rattle; cf. Du. klatergoud. Clinquant (1591), glittering with gold or silver, tinselled; (1691), as sb., imitation of gold leaf, Dutch

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gold; ad. F. clinquant, clinking, tinkling, present pple. of clinquer, ad. Du. klinken, to clink, ring, found in the 15th century in F. as or clinquant, gold in thin plates, gold leaf. A name for a jeweller's tool is Spit-sticker (1837), a jeweller's graver or sculper with a convex face; ad. Flem. spitsteker.

12. 4.^{12. 4.}

There is abundant circumstantial evidence for the making of glass in England in the medieval period, but direct records are extremely scarce and are practically confined to one district, Chiddingfold and the neighbouring villages on the borders of Sussex and Surrey, which from the early years of the 13th century were turning out large quantities of glass. It is probable in the case of glass-making, as in so many other industries, that improvements were introduced from abroad. In 1352 we find John de Alemaygne of Chiddingfold supplying large quantities of glass for St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster, and in January 1355-6 four ‘hundreds’ of glass were bought from the same maker for the windows of St. George's Chapel, Windsor. The modern period of glass-making, however, begins with the coming of the ‘gentilhommes verriers’ from France early in the reign of Elizabeth.

The making of stained glass was not flourishing in England in the 15th century. In 1449 Henry VI brought over from Flanders John Utyman to make glass of all colours for Eton College and the College of St. Mary and St. Nicholas at Cambridge. He was empowered to obtain workmen and materials at the king's cost, and full protection was granted to him and his family. He was allowed to sell such glass as he made at his own expense, and ‘because the said art had never been used in England, and the said John is to instruct divers in many other arts never used in this realm’, the king granted him a monopoly, no one else being allowed to use such arts for twenty years without his licence under a penalty of £200. A certain amount, especially of coloured glass, was imported. In 1447 the executors of the Earl of Warwick stipulated that no English glass should be used in the windows of his chapel at Warwick. The York accounts show ‘glass of various colours’ bought in 1457 from Peter Faudkent, ‘Dochman’, at Hull. ‘Rennysshe’ glass was bought in 1530. In 1540 the glaziers' craft complained that Peter Nicholson, a foreign glazier, imported glass ready made, ‘whereby our English men cannot be set to work’.

12. 4. Salz. 183-8; A.I. 143, 177.

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The glorious windows in King's College Chapel, Cambridge, were made between 1515 and 1530 by four English and two Flemish glaziers, all of whom were resident in London. There were several glaziers from the Low Countries and France serving Henry VIII and Edward VI. In 1567 Becker and Carré, Low Countrymen, obtained a royal licence for glazing.

There are only two terms of glazing. Grozier (1404, Durh. Acc. Rolls), grozing-iron; in the 14th and 15th centuries the form is groser, and the Eng. word may be formed on a vb. *groze adapted from the Du. vb. gruizen, whence also the F. gruger, to trim glass, break with the teeth, grésoir, grugeoir. Grozing-iron (1688), a tool in the form of nippers formerly used by glaziers in cutting glass; formed after Du. gruisijzer, from gruis, the stem of the vb. gruizen, to trim glass, crush, from gruis, fragments, and ijzer, iron.

12. 5.^{12. 5.}

The Dutch were pioneers in various refining industries. In the 15th century salt could not be produced in sufficient quantities in England to supply all that was needed for agricultural and domestic consumption, and 60 persons were brought from Holland and Zeeland by John de Schiedame to manufacture salt in England; they were settled at Winchelsea. Later, under Elizabeth, we find Cecil writing in 1563 to Gaspar Seelar, a German, saying that he had obtained for him the queen's licence to manufacture salt and inviting him to come over. There were, however, numerous competing proposals from Francis Bertie of Antwerp, Mount, Back, Backholt, Van Trere and others, Franchard and Baronally; the names of some of these men are obviously Low Dutch.

Proposals for the manufacture of saltpetre were made during the reign of Elizabeth by the Low Countrymen, Stephensson, Leonard Engelbright, and Bovyat.

New processes in the refining of sugar were also brought in from abroad. In 1622 Martin Higger, a German, applied for patent and monopoly for the making of double refined sugar; the art had been introduced twenty-four years earlier by another German, Gaspar Tielm. In 1667 a master boiler came from Holland, and in 1669 Zachariah Zebs from Germany to the Western Sugar Works at Glasgow. This venture was successful and a sugar refinery, combined with a distillery, was started in 1701, and skilled foreign workmen were brought over.

12. 5. A.I. 179, 217-19; I.C. ii. 77; Abram, 6.

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Potash (1648, Hexham), an alkaline substance obtained originally by leaching the ashes of terrestial vegetables and evaporating the solution, a crude form of potassium bicarbonate; in the 17th century the form was pot-ashes, plural, apparently ad. e.mod.Du. pot-asschen (Kilian), Du. potasch.

A term of the refining of alum is Slam (1650-1), refuse matter separated from alum in the preparation of this; ad. LG. slam, slime, mud (whence Sw. slam).

A term of salt refining is Loot (1669), a name applied in the Cheshire and Staffordshire salt works to the ladle used to remove the scum from the brine-pan; ad. Du. loet.

There are two terms of sugar refining. Skipper (1688), a sugar-ladle; ad. Du. schepper, scoop, ladle. Skip (a. 1818), to transfer sugar from one vessel to another in the process of manufacture; ad. Du. scheppen, to ladle, dip, bale, draw.

12. 6.^{12. 6.}

A number of other industries were started or improved by Low Dutch people.

Their influence is apparent in the making of pottery and earthenware. Jaspar Andreas and Jacob Janssen of Antwerp petitioned in 1570 for a monopoly of the manufacture of galley, i.e. glazed tiles and apothecaries' vessels. Two brothers, the Elers, came from Amsterdam in 1688 to the Staffordshire pottery district and began the method of salt glazing, making their red ware at Dimsdale and Bradwell, near Burslem, in imitation of the Saxony ware of the period. About twenty years later they removed to one of the suburbs of London, where there were potteries already at Chelsea, Vauxhall, Fulham, Battersea, and Lambeth. All the early stonewares of these potteries were similar to those of Delft and some of the potters at least were probably Dutch. In 1676 John Ariens van Hamme obtained a patent for the art of making tiles, porcelain, and other earthenware after the way practised in Holland. Delft ware was made at this period in Bristol and Liverpool, but there is no evidence of foreign potters. The frequent intercourse between the Eastern Counties and Holland makes it probable that the Delft ware of Lowestoft and Gunton is due originally to the skill of Dutch workmen. In 1703 foreigners came to Edinburgh to establish the art of making earthenware.

We hear of clock-makers from Delft in the reign of Edward III. In the early modern period the clocks made in England were

12. 6. A.I. 116, 143, 148, 177, 185, 215-19.

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of French design; but the term ‘Dutch clock’ suggests that clocks of this type were first made in Holland. They were first constructed in England soon after the Restoration by a Dutchman, Fromantil.

Printing had been introduced by Caxton from Flanders in the 15th century, but in the reign of Henry VIII many printers still came from abroad. Bookbinding, too, was largely done by foreigners. In 1590 a German, Peter Groot Heare, and several associates were licensed by the Privy Council of Scotland to make paper for nine years, and in 1687 Peter de Brus, a Fleming, brought over workmen to Scotland to make playing-cards, but his enterprise failed.

Stow says that the making of felt hats was begun in the reign of Henry VIII, and he attributes the first introduction of the art to Spaniards and Dutch. Straw hats were introduced in the same reign by a man of Gueldres. The art of starching linen was unknown in England until Mme Dingham van der Plasse introduced the art in the reign of Elizabeth. For the fee of £5 she was prepared to instruct English gentlewomen in the approved methods of getting up linen, and so greatly was her teaching prized that she soon amassed a considerable estate. Local tradition speaks of Flemings settled in south-east Lancashire in the reign of Edward III and attributes the introduction of clogs to them.

A Fleming, William Boonen, is credited with introducing the use of coaches into England; he is said to have acted as coachman to Queen Elizabeth, who availed herself occasionally of this method of progression.

The making of needles and parchment were subsidiary industries at the Flemish colony at Colchester in the 16th century.

A term of clock-making is Clock (1371), in ME. generally an instrument for measurement of time in which hours, &c., are sounded by bells; OE. had clucge (once, c. 900), but this word has no historical connexion with the extant word, which goes back apparently only to the 13th or 14th century; ME. clocke, clok(ke), was either ad. M.Du. clocke (Du. klok), bell, clock, or ad. ONF. cloke, cloque, corresponding to Central F. cloche, bell; it is probable that clock was introduced with striking clocks or at least with bells on which the hours were mechanically struck.

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One term of watch-making is apparently of Dutch origin. Stackfreed (1819), an eccentric wheel or cam attached to the barrels of watches before the invention of the fusee, in order to equalize the force transmitted; the word is of obscure origin but is presumably corrupt Du. or G.; it appears in 18th-century F. in the forms stockfred, stackfreed, and staakfreed.

Terms of milling are Rind (c. 1343, Durh. Acc. Rolls), an iron fitting serving to support an upper millstone on the spindle; corresponds to and perhaps ad. M.Du. rijn, rīne, or MLG. rîn, ryn, still in use in both languages; the final -d of the Eng. word is excrescent. Stive (1793), dust, esp. the floating dust or flour during the operation of grinding; ad. Du. stuive (given by Kilian as obsolete), related to stuiven, to rise as dust; the word seems to have belonged originally to Pembrokeshire, where there was a Flemish colony, and to E. Anglia, where words from Low Dutch are frequent.

A term for a tool in leather-working is Elsin (c. 1440, Pr. Parv.), an awl; ad. M.Du. elsene, later elzen(e), Du. els, an awl, bradawl; the word was also borrowed into the Romance languages as Sp. lesna, alesna, It. lesina, F. alêne.

There is only one term of printing. Rounce (1683), the handle of the winch by which the spit and wheel are turned so as to run the carriage of a hand-press in and out; ad. Du. ronds(e), ronse, in the same sense.

A term of rope-making was introduced in the 18th century. Loper (1794), a swivel upon which yarns are hooked at one end while being twisted into cordage; O.E.D. says from lope, to run and -er, but in this sense perhaps another word immediately ad. Du. looper, runner.

A term of basket-making is Skein (1837), a split of osier after being dressed for use in fine basket-work; ad. Du. scheen (M.Du. scheene).

In the 18th and 19th centuries were introduced a number of terms for the cutting and polishing of diamonds. The largest centre for this trade was and is at Amsterdam. Dop (1764), a small copper cup with a handle, into which a diamond is cemented to be held while being cut; ad. Du. dop, shell, husk, cover; the same word as Dop, p. 148. Skive (1843), a revolving iron disk or wheel used with diamond powder in grinding, polishing, or finishing diamonds or other gems, a lap, a diamond wheel; ad. Du. schijf (M.Du. schîve). Trap-cut (1853), a mode

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of cutting gems, mostly used with emeralds, sapphires, and rubies; apparently from Du. trap, step, stair, and cut. Trap-brilliant (1877), in diamond cutting, a form of brilliant in which each of the foundation squares is divided horizontally into two triangular facets cut at an obtuse angle; apparently from Du. trap and brilliant. Scaife (1887), a revolving wheel for polishing diamonds; perhaps ad. Du. schijf, disk, wheel; the same word as Scaife, p. 106.

In the manufacture of quill pens the term Dutch (1763) is used for the process of clarifying and hardening quills by plunging them in heated sand and rapidly passing them through a fire; from Dutch, adj.; the process must have been of Dutch invention and borrowed from them.

Another Dutch invention was the mangling of clothing in laundering and bleaching. Mangle (1774), a machine for rolling and pressing linen and cotton clothing; ad. Du. mangel, apparently short for the synonymous mangel-stok, from the stem of mangelen, to mangle, from M.Du. mange, a mangle, in early use also a mangonel. The vb. Mangle (1775) is from the sb. or perhaps immediately ad. Du. mangelen.

Two words are the names of parts of machines. Trigger (1621), a movable catch or lever which releases a detent or spring and sets some force or mechanism in motion; in the 17th and 18th centuries also tricker, ad. Du. trekker, a trigger, from trekken, to pull; the form trigger occurs in 1660, but tricker remained the usual form down to c. 1750, and is still in dial. use from Scotland to the Midlands. Cam (1777), a projecting part of a wheel adapted to impart a variable or alternating motion to another piece pressed against it; probably ad. Du. kam (M.Du. cam), the same word as Eng. comb., but also applied to ‘a toothed rim or part of a wheel, teeth of a wheel’, as in Du. kamrad, toothed wheel, cog-wheel; the Du. word was borrowed into F. as came, cog, tooth, catch of a wheel, and the Eng. word may be partly from French.

There are a few words which are undoubtedly technical terms, but are difficult to assign to any particular craft or trade. Furison (1536, from Sc.), the steel used for striking fire from flint; ad. M.Du. vuurijzen (in Kilian, vierijzen), from vuur, fire, and ijzen, ijzer, iron. Drill (1611), an instrument for drilling or boring; in this sense probably immediately from Du. dril, drille, in the same sense (in Kilian, 1599) from the vb. drillen; in the

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military sense the word is probably from the vb. in English. The verb is later, Drill (1649), to pierce or bore a hole; ad. Du. drillen, to drill, bore; (1681), to turn round and round; the Du. word had also this meaning, M.Du. drillen, to bore, turn in a circle, brandish (MLG. drillen, to roll, turn). Shot-prop (1875), a shot-plug; perhaps after Du. geschut-prop.