As a teacher, I have always been
interested in word origins. English grew from many languages and cultures and
we have also borrowed many words from other languages. Here are 30 English
words we have adopted from Dutch.
During much of the 1600s, the
Netherlands was a world power, especially at sea, and this influence
contributed to the English language in the form of borrowings from Dutch into
English of various nautically and aquatically themed words. Here’s a list of
many of these terms (a few of which were adopted from, or may derive from cognates
in, other languages) and their definitions and their Dutch origins.
1. avast (“stop”): from hou vast, meaning “hold fast”
2. bow (“front of a ship”): from boeg (or from Old German or
Old Norse)
3. brackish (“salty”): from brac (or a Low German cognate),
meaning “salty”
4. buoy (“marker” or, as a verb, “mark with a
buoy” or “keep afloat”): from buoy,
ultimately from the Latin word boia,
meaning “shackle”
5. caboose (“the last car on a freight train,
used for the accommodation for the train’s crew”): from kabuis or kombuis,
meaning “galley,” or “ship’s kitchen”
6. commodore (“senior captain” or “naval
officer above a captain in rank”): probably from kommandeur, ultimately from the Old French word comandeor, meaning
“commander”
7. cruiser (“warship larger than a destroyer
but smaller than a battleship,” or “pleasure motorboat”): from kruisen (related to kruis, meaning “cross”),
meaning “sail across or go through”
8. deck (“any of various floors of a ship”):
from dek, meaning
“covering”
9. dock (“mooring structure for vessels” or, as
a verb “tie up at a dock”): from docke,
meaning “pier”
10. dredge (“riverbed or seabed scoop” or, as a
verb, “drag” or “scoop”): perhaps based on dregghe,
meaning “dragnet”
11. freebooter (“pirate”): from vrijbuiter, meaning “robber”;
the second half of the word is related to booty,
also derived from Dutch
12. freight (“shipped goods” or, as a verb,
“ship goods”): from a word variously spelled fraght,
vracht, and vrecht and meaning “water
transport”; the Dutch word is also the source of fraught, meaning “heavy” or “weighed down”
13. filibuster (“obstructive act” or, as a verb,
“obstruct”): from vrijbuiter
by way of the Spanish word filibuster
(see freebooter
above), which in turn comes from the French word flibustier
14. hoist (“lift” as a noun or a verb): from hijsen
15. jib (“spar”): from gijben, meaning “boom”
16. keel (“spine or structure projecting from a
hull”): from kiel
17. keelhaul (“punish by dragging over the
keel”): from kielhalen,
meaning “keel hauling”
18. kill (“riverbed”): from kil
19. maelstrom (“whirlpool” or, by extension,
“confused situation”): from maalstroom,
meaning “grinding current” or “strong current” (the second element of the word
is cognate with stream);
possibly based on an Old Norse word
20. morass (“boggy or muddy ground” or, by
extension, “complicated or confused situation”): from marasch, meaning “swamp,”
partly based on the Old French word marais,
meaning “marsh”
21. plug (“stopper” or, as a verb, “stop (a
hole)”): from plugge,
meaning “stopper”
22. school (“large group of fish,” unrelated to
the term for an educational institution): from schole
23. scow (“small, wide sailboat” or
“flat-bottomed boat”): from schouw
24. shoal (“large group of fish”; unrelated to
the same word meaning “area of shallow water”): cognate with schole
25. skipper (“captain of a ship”): from schipper, meaning “someone
who ships”
26. sloop (“sailboat,” either a small modern
boat or a specific type of warship): from sloep,
either ultimately from slupen,
meaning “to glide,” or from the Old French term chalupe
27. smack (“small sailboat”): possibly from smak, meaning “sailboat,”
perhaps from the sound made by flapping sails
28. smuggler (“illegal trader”): smokkelen or the Low German
word smukkelen,
meaning “transport (goods) illegally”)
29. stockfish (“cod or similar fish prepared by
drying”): from stokvis,
meaning “stick fish”
30. yacht (“small, light pirate-hunting naval
vessel” or “pleasure motorboat or sailboat”): from jacht, meaning “hunt” and short for jachtschip
Source: http://esl.about.com
Robert
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