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Interesting use of dutch oven as a verb.
Merriam-Webster amd American Heritage don't have it.
Online Slang Dictionary cites a 1999 book and a 2009 book. They've blacked out the quotes in order to keep Google from refusing to link to it, which sounds a little flaky, but it might be true. Any sensible webmaster would ROT-13 the citations, instead of typing in scads of nbsp codes, wouldn't he?
How common is this use of dutch oven? Am I the last to know?
The question was about the use of "dutch oven" to describe the gaseous attack, rather than using it to specify a piece of covered cookware.
Dutch oven (the cookware), dutch uncle, going dutch, dutch courage, etc., are based on an ethnic slur. Having worked for a multinational headquartered in Eindhoven, I suspect there is considerable validity to the stereotype, but I don't know whether the behavior reinforces the stereotype, or if the stereotype encourages that behavior.
In my youth I remember the term used for a very specific prank centered around farting. A dutch oven in this sense was the prank of farting in a car with the windows all closed, then turning up the heat (and fan) to the maximum setting. I can attest that my sons independently also used the term in their adolescence for the same prank. Often the prankster would shout "dutch oven."
It is more effective in the days of electric windows when the driver can lock the windows shut.
I don't remember ever hearing it used verbally, but it is unsurprising to me. In this case, the image of being enclosed in a bedroom, or wrapped in bedcovers, seems like a reasonable extension to the prank I know.
Heimhenge said
EmmettRedd said
I wonder if the gaseous dutch oven has any relationship to the WWII concentration camp ovens.I doubt it ... those would have been Deutsch ovens.
But, we extend, euphemize, exaggerate, etc. language for many reasons--to soften the thought, to be salacious, etc. In fact, the title of this thread is an example.
While Deutsch ovens were literally deadly, I can imagine someone on the receiving end of the prank described by Glenn would say their gassing was "deadly" as well. Hence, the dutch oven would be a milder form of the Deutsch oven.
This book claims it originated about 1910 and was especially used in the army. The entry seems have this reference (but not accessible through Google books and to me as it is in French).
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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