Holland's Influence on English Language and Literature

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Chapter X How It Happened that Holland Exerted Influence on the English Language

The first man, and till the present time, at least in England and America, the only man who has made any elaborate investigation of this question, is the Rev. W.W. Skeat. In his ‘brief notes,’ in the introductory part of his Etymological Dictionary he says: ‘The introduction into English of Dutch words is somewhat important yet seems to have received but little attention. I am convinced that the influence of Dutch upon English has been much underrated, and a closer attention to this question might throw some light even upon English history. I think I may take the credit of being the first to point this out with sufficient distinctness. History tells us that our relations with the Netherlands have often been rather close. We read of Flemish mercenary soldiers being employed by the Normans, and of Flemish settlements in Wales, “where,” says old Babyan (I know not with what truth), “they remayned a longe whyle, but after, they sprad all Englande over.” We may recall the alliance between Edward III, and the free towns of Flanders; and the importation, by Edward, of Flemish weavers. The wool used by the cloth-workers of the Low Countries grew on the backs of English sheep; and other close relations between us and our nearly related neighbors grew out of the brewing-trade, the invention of

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printing, and the reformation of religion. Caxton spent thirty years in Flanders (where the first English book was printed), and translated the Low German version of Reynard the Fox. Tyndale settled at Antwerp to print his New Testament, and was strangled at Vilvorde. But there was a still closer contact in the time of Elizabeth. Very instructive is Gascoigne's poem on the Fruits of War, where he describes his experience in Holland, and everyone knows that Zutphen saw the death of the beloved Sir Philip Sidney. As to the introduction of cant words from Holland, see Beaumont and Fletcher's play entitled “The Beggar's Bush.” After Antwerp had been captured by the Duke of Parma, “a third of the merchants and manufacturers of the ruined city,” says Mr. Green, “are said to have found a refuge on the banks of the Thames.” All this cannot but have affected our language and it ought to be accepted as tolerably certain that during the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, particularly the last, several Dutch words were introduced into England, and it would be curious to inquire whether, during the same period, several English words did not in like manner find currency in the Netherlands.’

I wonder why Dr. Skeat did not mention, even in this brief outline, the influence of the persecutions for religious reasons, by which for instance under Charles V and Philip II thousands of Dutchmen fled to England, and under Bloody Mary, as well as under the Stuarts, at many times, thousands of English people found a refuge in the Netherlands. The armies, often, of several thousands of English soldiers, who were stationed for many years in the Netherlands during Elizabeth and later as well, must have felt the influence of Dutch, but on scattered

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refugees all over the Netherlands we may expect a far greater influence. During the reign of Elizabeth we meet in the Netherlands not only Leicester and Sir Philip Sidney with thousands of English soldiers, but noblemen as well, like Sir John Norris, and Sir Francis Vere, and Lord Willoughby, as well as Sir Roger Williams, who in the year 1587 was one of the defenders of Sluys in Zealand, and many others, among whom were some of bad repute, as for instance Sir William Stanley, the betrayer of Deventer, and Rowland York, who betrayed the fortress of Zutphen. The two sons of Charles I, with a great number of their adherents, found refuge in the Netherlands, and the story of Argyle and Monmouth shows how many English refugees in later time during the persecutions of Charles II and James II lived in the Low Countries, just as the Pilgrim fathers lived there at an earlier time during the years 1609-1620.

Not only did many thousands of English people live in Holland either as soldiers or as refugees, and become acquainted there with many Dutch words and expressions, but, on the other hand, thousands of Hollanders had lived in the eastern districts of England for centuries, while in the time of Elizabeth, during the reign of the Duke of Alva, the population of some cities in the eastern parts of England was more than half Dutch.

The question of how far Holland exerted influence on England has been made a subject of special research by Douglas Campbell in his work, The Puritans, and the material brought together in his book certainly has spread more light, but the subject seems far from being exhausted. And yet in these researches we find more and more the way along which

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many Dutch words have come into the English language.

W.W. Skeat has treated this question a little more elaborately than in his dictionary, in his work, ‘Principles of English Etymology,’ Vol. I, Chapter XXIV, where he gives the following explanation:

‘When we consider that it has long been an admitted fact, that numerous English words were directly borrowed from Scandinavian, being brought over from Denmark in the tenth and eleventh centuries, it seems strange that so little is said in our grammars about the borrowing of English words from the Old Dutch and Old Friesic. Morris, in his Historical Outlines of English Accidence, gives a meagre list of thirteen words borrowed from Dutch, none of them being of any great antiquity in English. Koch, in his Grammatik, iii. 150, gives a list of about forty words which he supposes to be of ‘Niederdeutsch’ origin. Such a treatment of the subject is surely inadequate. It remains for me to show that this element is of considerable importance, and should not be so lightly passed over, as if the matter were of little account.

‘The first question is, at what period are we to date the borrowing of English words from the Netherlands? The right answer is, that the dates are various, and the occasions may have been many. It is conceded that several sea-terms are really Dutch. Dr. Morris instances boom, cruise, sloop, yacht (Du. boom, kruizen, jagt, older spelling jacht); as well as the word schooner. But the last instance is incorrect; the original name was scooner,¹ and originated in America, but was afterwards turned into schooner

1 From prov. E. scoon, to glide over water. See the story as told in Webster's Dictionary; a story which I once doubted, but find to be true; see Whitney, Study of Language, 1868, p. 38. Schooner has no sense in Dutch, and is known to be borrowed from us.

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because such was the Dutch spelling of the word after they had borrowed it from us! It is just one more instance of drawing a false induction from correct premises. Because should and would are spelt with l, could is spelt so too; and because sloop and yacht are Dutch, schooner is supposed to be the same. But we may, I think, safely add to the list the nautical terms ahoy, aloof, avast, belay,¹ caboose, hoist hold (of a ship), hoy, hull, lash (to bind spars together), lighter (a barge), marline, moor (to fasten a boat), orlop (a kind of ship's deck), pink (fishing-boat), reef (of a sail), reef (a rock), reeve, rover (sea-robber), to sheer off, skipper, smack (fishing-boat), splice, strand (of a rope), swab, yawl; which, with the four already mentioned, give more than thirty Dutch words in nautical affairs alone. Even pilot is nothing but Old Dutch, disguised in a French spelling.²

‘But there is another set of words of Dutch origin, of a different kind, which must also be considered. It is from the Netherlands that some at least of the cant terms current in the time of Elizabeth were borrowed, though a very few may be of Gipsy origin, and may thus be traced to the East. When Fletcher the dramatist wrote his play of the Beggar's Bush in 1622, it is remarkable that he laid the scenes in Ghent and in the neighborhood of Bruges, and makes Gerrard, who is disguised as the King of the Beggars, and understands a cant dialect, the father of a rich merchant of the latter town. It is clear whence Fletcher obtained the cant words which he introduces into his dialogue so copiously. They are much the

1 In some senses, all obsolete, belay is a native English term. As a nautical term, it first appears in The Complaint of Scotland, ed. Murray, ch. vi, p. 41 (1549).

2 See the note on this difficult word in the Supplement to my Dictionary. W.W. Skeat.

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same set as may be found in Awdeley's Fraternitye of Vagabondes, first printed in 1561, and in Harman's Caveat for Vagabondes, printed in 1567; see Furnivall's edition of these books for the Early English Text Society, which contains a Glossary, and an additional list of words at p. xxii. Harrison, in his Description of England, bk. ii. c. 10 (ed. 1587), says that the trade of the vagabonds, or roving Gypsies, had begun some sixty years previously, and that their number was said to exceed ten thousand. I suppose they reached England by way of Holland, and picked up some Dutch by the way; though it will be found that the main portion of the cant language is nothing but depraved and debased English, coined by using words in odd senses, and with slight changes, as when, e.g., food is called belly cheer, or night is called darkmans. The following are some of the old cant terms which I should explain from Dutch. Bufe, a dog;¹ from Du. baffen, to bark. Bung, a purse; Friesic pung, a purse. Kinchin, a child (Harman, p. 76); Du. kindekin, an infant (Hexham). Pad, a road, as in high pad, high road; Du. pad, a path, hence the sb. padder, a robber on the road, now called a footpad, and pad-nag, a road-horse now shortened to pad. Prad, a horse; Du. paard, a horse; Slates, sheets; Du. slet, a rag, clout. Hexham, in his Old Dutch Dictionary (1658), records a verb facken; ‘to catch or to gripe;’ which suggests a plausible origin for the cant word fake, to steal. It is to be remarked that some of the cant terms seem to be borrowed from parts of the continent still more remote than Holland; for fambles, hands, is plainly Danish, from the Dan. famle, to handle; whilst nase, drunk, is precisely the High G. nass, used literally

1 The modern slang word for dog is buffer (Hotten).

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in the sense of ‘wet,’ but figuratively in the sense of ‘drunk;’ the Low G. form being nat.

‘There was a rather close contact between English and Dutch in the days of Elizabeth, due to the war against Spain. After Antwerp had been conquered by the Duke of Parma, ‘a third of the merchants and manufacturers of the ruined city,’ says Mr. Green, ‘are said to have found a refuge on the banks of the Thames.’ We should particularly note such a poem as that entitled the Fruits of War, by George Gascoigne, where he describes his experiences in Holland. He and other English volunteers picked up Dutch words, and brought them home. Thus, in st. 136 of that poem, he says that he ‘equyppt a Hoye;’ where hoy, a boat (Du. hey) is a word still in use. In st. 40, he uses the adj. frolicke to express cheerful or merry which is borrowed from Du. vrolijk spelt vrolick by Hexham; Ben Jonson who also had served in Holland spells it froelich, as if it was hardly naturalised, in The Case is Altered, Act i, sc. 1. In his Voyage to Holland, Gascoigne quotes several Dutch sentences, which he explains by means of notes. He also introduces the word pynke, which he explains by ‘a small bote;’ this is mod. E. pink (Du. pink).

In Ben Jonson's well-known play, ‘Every Man in His Humour,’ we may find several Dutch words. Thus he has guilder as the name of a coin, Act iii, sc. 1; this is a sort of E. translation of Du. gulden, literally golden, also the name of a coin; Hexham gives: ‘een Gulden, or Carolus gulden, a Gilder, or a Charles Gilder; een Philippus gulden, a Philips Gilder.’ Again, he has lance-knights, foot-soldiers, in Act ii, sc. 4 [or 2]; this is merely the Du. lansknecht, which has also been taken into French (and

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even into English) in the form lansquenet. In Act iii, sc. 1, he has the sb. leagure, and the derivative beleag'ring; we still use beleaguer, from the Du. belegeren, to besiege, the Du. sb. being leger, a camp. In Act ii, sc. 1, he has quacksalvers, mountebanks, from Du. kwakzalver; the word is still common in the abbreviated form quack as applied to a physician.

‘There are several Dutch words in Shakespeare, who quotes one word as Dutch when he says - ‘lustig, as the Dutchman says;’ All's Well, ii., 3, 47; where lustig means ‘in excellent spirits.’ The list of Dutch words in Shakespeare is a much longer one than might be expected. I give it here, referring to my Dictionary for the etymologies. It runs thus: boor, brabble, burgomaster, buskin (ed), canakin,¹ cope, v., copes-mate,² crants (Du. krans or G. Kranz), deck (of a ship), deck, v., doit, foist, fop, frolic, fumble, geck, a fool (Du. gek), gilder, a coin, glib, adj., glib, v. (M. Du. gelubben, to castrate), groat, heyday or hoyday, used as an interjection, hogshead, hoise, not hoist, hold (of a ship), holland, hoy, hull (of a ship), jeer, jerkin, leaguer, a camp (Du. leger), link, a torch, linstock, loiter, lop, manakin, minikin, minx,³ mop, mope, rant, ravel, rover, ruffle, sloven(ly), snaffle, snap, snip, snuff, v. to sniff; sprat, sutler, swabber, switch, toy, trick, uproar, waggon,⁴ wainscot. Many of these terms are nautical, such as deck, hoise, hold, hoy, hull, rover (sea-pïrate), sprat, swabber; others are just such words as might easily be picked up by roving English volunteer

1 ‘Een kanneken, A small Canne’; Hexham. Skeat.

2 ‘From Du. koopen, to barter, and M. Du. maet, a mate (Hexham) But mate is also E., though hardly so in this compound.’ Skeat.

3 ‘This difficult word has been at last explained by me, in the Phil. Soc. Trans., 1886. It is merely the Friesic (and Bremen) minsk, variant of Du. mensch, a man, or (when neuter) a wench.’ Skeat.

4 ‘Waggon was re-introduced into England from abroad, long after the A.S. waegn had passed into E. wain.’ Skeat.

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soldiers, viz. boor, burgomaster, buskin, doit, fop, frolic, geck, gilder, heyday, hogshead, jerkin, leaguer, link, linstock, loiter, lop, manakin, minx, snaffle, sutler, switch, trick, uproar, waggon; indeed, in the case of some of these, as doit, gilder, jerkin, leaguer, link, linstock, snaffle, sutler, trick, waggon, the connection with military affairs is sufficiently obvious.

‘For other words of (presumably) Dutch origin, see the list in my Etym. Dic., 2nd ed. 1884, p. 750; or my Concise Etym. Dict., p. 607.’

‘In the case of the majority of these words, the certainty of their being borrowed from the Low Countries is verified by their non-occurrence in Middle English. They nearly all belong to what I have called the modern period, viz., the period after 1500, when the introduction of new words from abroad excites no surprise. A more difficult and perhaps more important question remains, viz., as to the possible introduction of Dutch or Low German words into Middle English. We are here met by the difficulty that Old Dutch and Middle English had a strong resemblance, which may easily mislead an inquirer. Thus Mr. Blades, in his Life of Caxton, 1882, p. 2, speaks of ‘the good wife of Kent, who knew what the Flemish word eyren meant, but understood not the English word eggs.’ But the whole point of the story depends upon the fact that the word for ‘eggs’ was eggis in Northern and Midland English, but eyren in the Southern dialect; in fact, eiren occurs in the Ancren Riwle, p. 66, and is formed by adding the Southern en to the form eyr-e, resulting regularly from the A.S. pl. aegru. Mr. Blades tells us we must ‘bear in mind that the inhabitants of the Weald had a strong admixture of Flemish blood in their best families, and that cloth was their chief,

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and probably only manufacture.’ All this may be true, but the particular anecdote which is quoted to prove it does, in effect, prove nothing of the kind. It proves, rather, that the language of the Saxons who came to England did not originally differ from the language of those of their fellows whom they left behind; and the points we have to determine are rather, to what extent had the differentiation between these two tongues proceeded at any given date, and what evidence have we of the actual borrowing of Dutch, Friesic, or Low German words at various periods? A convenient period for consideration is that which extends over the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when there were especially close commercial relations between the English and Flemish. The Libell of English Policye, written in 1436, speaks of the ‘commoditees of Flaundres’ at some length, and reminds the Flemings that their great manufacture of cloth was dependent upon England, as it was nearly all made of English wool, to which Spanish wool was inferior. The writer adds that merchandise from Prussia, and even from Spain, reached England by way of Flanders, which was indeed ‘but a staple¹ to other lands.’ We might expect such Flemish or Dutch words as occur in Middle English to apply to various implements used in such trades as weaving and brewing, and in mechanical arts, but it is very difficult to investigate these matters, since the English were already well supplied with necessary words. Still, I think the word spool is a clear instance of a borrowed word. It occurs, spelt spole, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, about 1440, and in another Vocabulary of the fifteenth century; and answers to

1 ‘The very word staple is certainly Low German, slightly disguised by a French spelling.’ Skeat.

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M. Du. spoele, Du. spoel, Low G. spole. The native E. word is reel (A.S. hreol).

‘Other low words which I regard as having been borrowed from various forms of Low German rather than as forming part of the stock of native English are the following: botch, to patch; bounce, boy, brake (for flax), bulk (in the obsolete sense of trunk of the body), cough, curl, duck, v., to dive; fop, girl, groat, hawker, huckster, kails (a game), knurr or knur, a knot in wood, wooden ball; lack, s. and v.; lash, to bind together; loll, loon, luck, maxer, mud, muddle, nag, a horse; nick, notch, orts, pamper, patch, plash, a pool; rabbit (?), rabble, scoff, scold, shock, a pile of sheaves; shudder, skew, slabber, slender, slight, slot, a bolt; spool, sprout, tub, tuck, v., tug, unto. All these words are, I believe, found in the Middle English period, but not earlier; and in some cases the fact of the borrowing is certain. Thus groat is Low G. groot, the E. form being great; mazer is a bowl made of the spotted wood of the maple, the M.H.G. word for ‘spot’ being máze;¹ tub, Low G. tubbe, may have been brought in by the brewing trade, together with vat (Du. vat); hawker and hukster are certainly not native words; kails is a Dutch game, from the Du. kegel, a cone, a sort of ninepins. Some of these words appear in Friesic, and it is possible that they belonged to the word-stock of the Friesians who came over with the Saxons, but this will always be, in the absence of evidence, a very difficult point.

‘The E. Friesic Dictionary by Koolman gives some help; I note the following: Bummsen, to bounce, from bumms, the noise of a heavy fall; boy,

1 ‘Koolman utterly misses the etymology; he seems to have trusted to Jamieson's Dictionary for English, as he mentions no other authority.’ Skeat.

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a boy, nearly obsolete in Friesic; brake, a flax-brake; kuchen, to cough (the A.S. word is hwóstan); krul, a curl, krullen, to curl; duken, to duck, bend, down; foppen, to befool (the M.E. foppe being used to mean a foolish person, see my Supplement); grote, grot, a groat; höker, a hawker; kegel, a kail; knure, a bump; lak, a defect; lasken, to lash together; lóm, tired, slow, whence M.E. lowmish, slow, stupid, and E. loon or lown (for *lowm); lük, luck, mudde, mud; muddelen, to muddle; ort, ort, remnant; plas, plasse, a plash, pool; rabbeln, rappeln, to chatter, rappalje, a rabble, schelden, to scold; schüddern, to shudder; slabbern, slubbern, to slabber or slubber; slicht, smooth, also slight; slöt, a lock; spole, spol, a spool; sprute, a sprout, bud, spruten, to sprout; tubbe, a tub. The difficult word touch-wood is easily explained when we find that the M.E. form was tache, tinder, or inflammable stuff, answering to E. Friesic takke, a twig, takje, a little twig.

‘Richthofen's O. Friesic Dictionary also gives some help; we should especially notice the following: dekka, to thatch; fro, glad (cf. E. fro-lic); grata, a groat; luk, luck; minska, a man, for menska, which is short for manniska (cf. E. minx); pad; a path (cf. E. foot-pad); skelda, to scold; skof, a scoff; slot, a lock; snavel, mouth (cf. E. snaffle); spruta, to sprout; ond-, und-, on-, a prefix, the same as E. un-, into un-to.

‘There is a glossary to Heyne's Kleinere altniederdeutsche Denkmäler, which gives several hints; I note particularly the words be-scoffón, to scoff at; scok, a shock of corn; slot, a lock; unt, unto. The Bremen Wörterbuch also throws much light upon Low German forms; for example, it gives bunsen, to bounce, from the interj. bums, signifying the noise

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of a fall, showing that the n in this word is due to putting n for m before a following s.

‘A most useful Dictionary of Old Low German has lately appeared, by K. Schiller and A. Lübben. As a specimen of the information to be derived from it, I quote the following: “Bosse, botze, boitze, Art grobes Schuhwerk;” which explains E. botch, to patch. The authors add the following curious passage: “Nullus allutariorum ponet soleas sub calseis, quae botze dicuntur.” Again, they remark that gör, a girl (whence E. girl) is much used in dialectal speech, though it seems scarce in books. I also find hoken, to hawk about, and hokeboken, to carry on the back, which makes me think that my guess as to huckaback, viz., that it originally meant “pedlars' ware,” may be right. Other useful entries are: knerreholt, thin oaken boards (evidently wood with knurrs or knots in it); lucke, luck; masele, measles, spots; maser, maple; “enen maseren kop”; a maple cup, a mazer; muddle, mud; ort, ort; placke, a patch; plasken, to plash or plunge into water; plump, interjection, used of the noise made by King Log when he falls into the water; plunder, booty, plunderwaare, household stuff, especially bits of clothing; rabbat, a rabble, mob; schock, a shock, or heap of corn, Schocken, to put into shocks; schudden, to shake, shudder; slampampen, to live daintily (cf. E. pamper); sprot, a sprat, etc. It is somewhat surprising to find in this work the phrase ut unde ut, which is precisely our out and out. We want all the light that is obtainable to guide us in this matter.

‘After all, some of the above words may be found in A.S. glosses, or may occur in unpublished texts. The word dog seemed to me to be borrowed, the E. word being hound; in fact, we find Du. dog, M.

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Du. dogge, Swed. dogg, Dan. dogge, Low G. dogge. But in the A.S. glosses to Prudentius, we find: “canum, docgena;” showing that the A.S. form was docga. I have supposed the word split to be Scandian; but the occurrence in O. Friesic of the original strong verb split-a renders it probable that split may, after all, be of A.S. or Mercian origin. The word mane is not in the A.S. dictionaries, so that I believed it to be a borrowed word from Scandinavian. But the publication (in 1885) of Mr. Sweet's Oldest English Texts shows that the A.S. form was manu, which occurs in the very old Erfurt Glossary. We must also bear in mind that the Northumbrian and Mercian of the oldest period have almost entirely perished.’

So far the results of W.W. Skeat.

In Modern Philology for July, 1908, W.H. Carpenter, Professor in Columbia University, New York, published an interesting article entitled: Dutch Contributions to the Vocabulary of English in America. Dr. Carpenter gives first an outline of the history of the Dutch settlement on Manhattan, Long Island, along the Hudson River, in the Mohawk Valley and wherever they were found; he tells that notwithstanding the short period of the Dutch government in New York, and the overwhelming influx of English immigrants into New York City since the English occupation in 1664, yet the Dutch language was maintained in many of the smaller settlements, and to some extent even in New York City, where ‘down to 1764 the Dutch language was still used exclusively in the service of the Dutch Reformed church, although Dutch had not been taught for a century in the schools. In Flatbush, on Long Island, Petrus van Steenburgh, who was appointed schoolmaster in 1762, was the first who taught English in the school

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that had been established more than a century before (1659). He gave instruction nevertheless in both languages. His successor in 1773, Anthony Welp by name, was the last teacher who was required to teach Dutch.’¹

Under the constant influence of English, this American colonial Dutch, like the Dutch of the Boers in Africa, was of course more and more perverted. Yet many words of the Dutch settlers passed into the English language and the American-English ‘dictionaries have considerable lists of words that are derived directly from borrowings from the Dutch language in America.’²

Dr. Carpenter gives a list of seventy-six of these words, as follows:

boss, n. master, patron (Du. baas).

clove, n., cleft, ravine, pass (Du. kloof).

cold'-slaw', cole'-slaw', n., sliced cabbage served as a salad (Du. kool, cabbage, slaa salade, salad).

cook'y, cook'ey, cook'ie, n., a small sweet cake (Du. koekje).

crul'ler, n., a fried sweet cake (Du. krullen, to curl).

dom'ine, dom'inie, n., a clergyman (Du. domine, a Protestant clergyman).

dope, n., a thick liquid (Du. doop, sauce, gravy).

dorp, n., village (Du. dorp).

kill, n., a creek, stream, channel (Du. kuil).

kill'-fish', kil'li-fish', kil'ly-fish', kil'lie, n., a fish, especially Fundulus heteroclitus (Du. kil fish). The Dutch word was doubtless likvisch.

1 W.H. Carpenter, ‘Dutch Contributions,’ etc., in Modern Philology, July, 1908, p. 58.

2 Carpenter, p. 59.

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o'ly-koek', o'ly-coek', better o'ly-cook', pronounced also ol'ly-cook', n., a sweet cake fried in fat, a doughnut (Du. olie, oil, koek, cake).

patroon', n., proprietor of a manor (Du. patroon, patron, master).

Pink'ster, Pinx'ter, Ping'ster, n., Whitsuntide; now only in Pinksterbloom, Pinksterflower, the wild azalea (Du. Pinkster. Du. Pinksterbloem is the peony).

Santa Claus, Klaus, n., Saint Nicholas (Du. Sant Klaas dim. of Kikolaas).

scow, n., a flat-bottomed boat (Du. schouw).

scup, n. vb., a swing; to swing (Du. schop, schoppen).

slaw, n., cabbage salad (Du. slaa salade).

speck, spec, n., pork, fat (Du. spek, bacon, fat, lard). The statement in the Standard that ‘the form speck is due partly to G. speck and partly to D. spek’ is undoubtedly correct.

spook, n. vb., a ghost, to haunt (Du. spook).

Stoop, n., entrance platform at door of a house, porch (Du. stoep).

vly, fly, vley, vlei, vlaie, n., a swamp, marsh, shallow pond (Du. vallei, valley).

waf'fle, n., a batter cake (Du. wafel).

The following words are contained in the two dictionaries, but with no suggestion of a Dutch origin:

blick'ie, blick'ey, n., a tin pail (Du. blikje (dim.), metal basin, bowl). Century (N.J.), but with no suggestion of origin; Standard, Penn. D. bleck, G. blech. The ending -ie, -ey shows indubitably that the word has come from the Dutch diminutive. Tin blickey also occurs, with an obliteration of the real sense of blickey.

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bush, n., a wood, grove, thicket, as in ‘sugar-bush,’ ‘Flatbush’ (Du. bosch, same meaning). Neither the Century nor the Standard suggests a connection of the word in this meaning with Dutch. The usage is not English; and in the many instances in which the word occurs alone, e.g., ‘to take to the bush,’ or as part of a compound in America and Africa, e.g., ‘bushman,’ ‘bushranger,’ ‘bushwhacker,’ and the like, it has undoubtedly come in through Dutch influence, exerted at one time or another, upon the vocabulary. Standard: bosch, (S. Afr.) with its true signification, but does not connect it with the above word. Both the phonetic form of the original and the presence of bush in the English vocabulary have made the thorough incorporation of the word possible.

dob'ber, n., a fish-line float (Du. dobber, same meaning). Standard: (Local, U.S.), but no suggestion of Dutch origin. Not in Century.

dumb, adj., stupid, dull (Du. dom, same meaning). Century: (Local, U.S. In Pa. this use is partly due to the G. dumm). Standard: (Local, U.S.) Compare G. dumm. The word in this sense has come in from both Dutch and German, according to locality, since it is used in territory where there is no thought of German influence, and again, where there could have been no Dutch influence exerted.

file, vb., to scrub, mop, scour (Du. feilen, same meaning). Standard: (Local, U.S.) Vb. not in Century.

file, n., mop (Du. feil (?), same meaning). Century: In some parts of U.S., a cloth used in cleaning or wiping the floor. Also filecloth. Not in Standard.

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pit, n., the hard kernel of certain fruits (Du. pit, kernel, pith). Century: Variety of pip, by confusion with pit (U.S.). Standard: (U.S.) Variety of pip.

slaw'bank, n., a folding bed (Du. slaap, sleepbank, bench; compound Dutch word in same meaning). Standard, no etymology suggested. Not in Century.

snoop, vb., to pry into. Hudson and Mohawk valleys, to eat stealthily (Du. snoepen, to enjoy stealthily, to eat in secret). Century: (Probably a variety of snook, M.E. snoken, to lurk, pry about). Standard: (For snook L.G. snoken, search).

snoop'y, adj., sly, stealthy (Du. snoepig, same meaning). Standard. Not in Century.

All of these words, it may confidently be asserted, owe their presence in the vocabulary to Dutch influence.

In the following words the Dutch origin is correctly assumed by one or the other of the two dictionaries, but not by both:

hook, n., point of land, cape (Du. hoek, same meaning, e.g., Hoek van Holland). This sense of the word is Dutch and not English. Standard has correctly (D. hoek). Century suggests no connection with Dutch.

hoop'le, n., a child's hoop for trundling (Du. hoepel (dim) hoop). Century: (Dim. of hoop, after D. hoepel). Standard suggests no connection with Dutch.

Paas, n., Easter (Du. Paasch, same meaning). Century has correctly (D. paasch). Standard: (Local, U.S.), but with no suggestion of Dutch origin.

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The word also occurs in: Paas-day, Easter; Paas-flower, the yellow daffodil.

wink'le'-hawk, n., an angular rent in cloth (Du. winkelhaak, a rent, tear). Century has correctly (D. winkelhaak). Standard: (Local, U.S.), but with no suggestion of Dutch origin. Also occurs as wink'lê-hole.

‘In the following words the correct Dutch origin is suggested by both dictionaries, but is not definitely assumed by either:

bock'ey, n., a dish made from a gourd (Du. bakje, (dim.), bowl, basin). Century: Probably D. bakje, dim. of bak. Standard: (Prov., U.S.), but with no assumption of Dutch origin.

fike, fyke, n., a bow-net (Du. fuik, a hoop-net). Century: fyke (Perhaps D. fuik, bow-net). Standard: fike (Local, U.S.) (Perhaps D. log.) Both dictionaries, in not taking account of the inflected form, have failed to reconcile ‘logy’ definitely with Dutch log.

‘The following words are not found in the dictionaries at all. It is quite likely that many of them are in use only in restricted localities. Some of them, however, are widely distributed and are perfectly vital parts of the common vocabulary. It should undoubtedly be possible to add still further to this list, which, as has been said, is only tentative. The new words in their usual orthography are as follows:

afease', afeese', adj. vide fease.

aw're-griet'chies, n. pl., maize coarsely ground (Du. aar, ear of corn; grutjes (dim.), grits). Hudson valley.

bedrooft', bedrowft', bedruft', adj., miserable, despondent (contempt), sad, sorrowful, gloomy (Du. bedroefd, same meaning). Hudson valley.

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bin'nacle, bin'nakill, ben'nakill, n., the smaller channel of a river running back from the main stream (Du. binnen, within, kil, channel). Kil acquires in America, where it very frequently occurs in place-names and as a common appellative, a meaning which it apparently never had at home, viz., brook, stream, river; but it also is used in its original signification, as in Arthur Kill, i.e., achter kil, back channel. Widely used. John Burroughs, ‘Pepacton’; ‘binocle, a still, miry place at the head of a big eddy;’ vide also communication to the Evening Post, February 22, 1901, by Edward Fitch.

blawk'er, n., a flat bedroom candlestick (Du. blaaker, blaker, same meaning). Hudson valley.

blum'mie, blum'mey, n., flower, blossom (Du. bloempje (dim.), same meaning). Mohawk valley.

blum'machie, n., flower, blossom (Du. bloemetje (dim.), same meaning). Mohawk valley.

boond'er, v., to brush away, drive away (Du. boenderen, to scrub, brush). Hudson valley.

clip, adj., stony (Du. klip, rock, cliff). Standard Dictionary: klip (S. Afr.), a rock or stone, cliff, mountain. Hudson valley.

coss, n., wardrobe, chest of drawers (Du. kas, chest; kast, cupboard, closet). Hudson valley.

door'slag, n., colander, strainer (Du. doorslag, same meaning). Schenectady Co.

fease, feese, adj., disgusting (Du. vies, nauseous, disgusting). To be fease of a thing or person: e.g., I am fease of him, he disgusts me; I am fease of it, etc., which coincides with the Dutch usage. Widely distributed. Occurs also as afease.

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geheist', p.p. as adj., overreached, e.g., ‘he's gehesit,’ he has overreached himself (Du. gehuisd, housed, lodged, domiciled). Hudson valley.

grill'y, adj., chill, raw, e.g., ‘to-day is so grilly that I shall not go out’ (Du. grillig, same meaning). Hudson valley.

herk'ies, herk'eys, n. pl., haunches, e.g., ‘squat down on your herkies’ (Du. hurk: op de hurken zitten, to squat; hurkjes (dim.).) Schenectady Co.

hock'ies, hock'eus, n. pl., soused pigsbones, i.e., the joints above the pochies, q.v. (Du. hakjes (dim.) pasterns, hocks). Hudson valley.

kip, n., a word used in calling chickens, e.g., ‘come kip, kip!’ (Du. kip. hen, fowl.) Schnectady Co.

kon'kepot', n., gossip, huzzy, scold, e.g., bedrufter konkepot, a miserable scold (Du. konkelpot, same meaning). Hudson valley.

lop'pie, lap'pey, n., small mat made of rags (Du. lapje (dim.), rag, shred, remnant). Hudson valley.

mol'lykite', n., foolishness (Du. malligheid, softness, mildness, weakness). Hudson valley.

mont, n., basket (Du. mand, same meaning). Hudson valley. Schenectady Co.

niskeer'y, adj., curious, inquisitive (Du, nieuwsgierig, same meaning). Hudson valley.

off'doch, n., inclosed stoop (Du. afdak, shed, penthouse). Schenectady Co.

plock, v., to settle down (Du. plakken, to remain sitting, to stay long). Hudson valley.

poch'ies, poch'eys, n. pl., soused pigsknuckles, i.e., the joints above the toes (Du. pootjes (dim.) feet). Hudson valley.

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poos'ly, adv., tolerably, indifferently well (Du. passelijk, same meaning). Hudson valley.

prat'chie, prat'chey, n., talk, gossip (Du. praatje (dim.), same meaning). Hudson valley.

proyt'el, v., to boil softly, to chatter, to prattle (Du. preutelen, to boil, to grumble). Hudson valley.

proyt'ler, n., pratter (Du. preutelaar, grumbler). Hudson valley.

pum'mel-ap'pelye, n., the berry of the wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), (Du. pommel, plant appeltje (dim.), apple). Hudson valley.

slob, n., bib (Du. slobbe, same meaning). Hudson valley.

sluck, n., swallow, draught (Du. slock, same meaning). Schenectady Co.

spree, n., a homewoven bed-quilt, usually blue and white (Du. sprei, counterpane, coverlet). Hudson valley.

stone'-rawp'ie, -rawp'y, ston'y-rawp'ie, n., a stony field (stone + Du. raapje (dim.) (turnip) field; cf. raapland, raapakker, raapier). Stone Arabia, Montgomery Co., is apparently this word, although the connection does not seem to have been noticed. The Dutch word was doubtless steenraapje.

unno'zel, adj., silly, simple (Du. onnoozel, same meaning). Hudson valley.

Wurst, wust, n., sausage (Du. worst, same meaning). Schenectady Co. and Hudson valley. Widely distributed. The word in U.S. is due partly to Dutch worst and German wurst.’ So far Dr. Carpenter.

The conclusion from all the material till this time brought together by Skeat, Carpenter, Douglas

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Campbell, Thorold Rogers and many historians is this: From the time of William the Conqueror in the eleventh century, when Flemish soldiers and Flemish weavers were brought over to England, till the time of Prince William III of Orange, who brought about the glorious revolution of 1688 to protect and confirm forever the rights of the English people, Holland has been all the time in close contact with England. During these more than six hundred years the people of the Low Countries have exerted an influence on the English people in general civilization, in learning, in trade, in industry, in agriculture, in art, in literature, and in nearly every part of human life. In a word, the world power of Holland was previous to that of England: Holland was ahead in nearly everything; England's time of glory and of world power succeeded that of Holland, and so it can be easily understood why many Dutch words and terms became part of the English language.

For the same reasons we can understand that in the nineteenth century, when Holland had for a long time lost its glorious position, while England was developing into a world empire, the influence of England on Holland became more important, and not the least on Dutch language and literature.

The position of Holland in the world's history, especially from the year 1200 till the year 1700, is indeed sufficient to explain everything. A position in the history of Europe and of all the world which Thorold Rogers describes in this way: ‘The debt of modern Europe to Holland is by no means limited to the lessons which it taught as to the true purposes of civil government. It taught Europe nearly everything else. It instructed communities in progressive and rational agriculture. It was the pioneer in navi-

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gation and in discovery; and, according to the lights of the age, was the founder of intelligent commerce. It produced the greatest jurists of the seventeenth century. It was preëminent in the arts of peace. The presses of Holland put forth more books than all the rest of Europe did. It had the most learned scholars. The languages of the East were first given to the world by Dutchmen. It was foremost in physical research, in rational medicine. It instructed statesmen in finance, traders in banking and credit, philosophers in speculative sciences. For a long time that little storm-vexed nook of North-western Europe was the university of the civilized world, the centre of European trade, the admiration, the envy, the example of nations.’¹

In the researches of W.W. Skeat this general position of Holland in the world's history is referred to, but is far from being fully recognized. And while this eminent scholar, as stated above, does not realize the influence of the religious persecutions in Holland as well as in England, on the other side he overestimates the influence of the gypsies. The English refugees came into close contact with the Dutch people; so did the English soldiers serving in Dutch armies, and the Dutch refugees in England, as well as the Dutch traders and settlers in England's eastern districts, had permanent contact with the English people. But the gypsies never and nowhere came into close and intimate contact with the nations in whose country they lived for a short time; their life was a separate one, and their influence in bringing Dutch words to England can easily be overestimated.

1 James E. Thorold Rogers, Holland. In the History of Nations, Preface. Thorold Rogers is a well known English scholar and professor in the University of Oxford.