суббота, 2 декабря 2017 г.

"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 30/11/17 (Dutch words: boss, snoop, booze, brandy, gin, cruise, yacht, cookie, bumpkin)

I talked quite recently about enmity between the English and the Dutch, which has resulted in all sorts of rather unflattering idioms to do with the Dutch, including Dutch courage. But, in fact, we do owe an awful lot to the Dutch in a good way, because they gave us so many words that have come into our language and which have lost their Dutch ancestry, mostly because of the way we pronounce them. So, just to give you a bit of  an example, if I asked you, "Is your boss a bit gruff?" Maybe he is a bit prone to snooping. Or you might to go for a booze cruise on his yacht. That contain at least half a dozen words that came over from the Netherlands. The boss of all Dutch words probably is the boss, it's from their word baas, meaning master. It travelled into the USA at the beginning of the 19th century, and it was very much restricted to workmen's slang, so it wasn't used at all in the current, modern context until quite recently. But if he's addicted to snooping, he's not actually spying, as we might thing today. The original meaning of snoop, from the Dutch snoepen, was to eat on the sly by sneaking bits of food out and eating them when no-one was looking. Something kids like to do all the time. I mentioned booze - very, very much a Dutch word, where it meant to drink to excess. It was spelt rather differently, as you might imagine. And you booze of chioce might be brandy, that was originally brandewine from the Dutch brandewijn, which was burnt wine. Burning, because when you burn the alcohol off, and condences back as brandy, basically. Some strong alcohol. Gin is flavoured with juniper berries, and it was traditionally made in the Netherlands. So we have them to thank for our gin and tonics as well. In the early 18th century, it was spelt genever. To do eith juniper. But because people associated this eith the Swiss city, it was colled Holland's genever instead. So, for a long time, if you wnted a gin and tonic, you eould ask for Holland's and tonic. Many, many words to do with the sea and sailing - perhaps because all the Dutch wars that went on on the sea - travelled across the North Sea to Britain. I mentioned cruise, that comes from their word to cross. And a jaghtschip as a fast pirate ship, originally, and we get yacht from there. And finally, worda for items of food. You might think that a cookie is quintessencially American, but, in fact, it started off as a Dutch koekje, which was a little cake. And that's how it travelled into English originally, before it became biscuit that we know today.  Cabbage salad, coleslaw of course, and gherkin also. But probably my favourite is a bumpkin, because in Dutch, a boomken is a little tree or a little barrel, and either way, it began as an insult for a short, stout, rather dumpy man. 

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