Why Splitting the Restaurant Bill Is Called “Going Dutch”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Yolanda from San Antonio.

Hi, Yolanda. How you doing?

All right. Thank you.

Welcome to the show. How can we help you?

I’m a native of the Netherlands and have lived in this country for quite some time.

But I remember when I first came, people would always say when they’re going out to a restaurant, we’re going Dutch.

Oh.

And I always wondered why they call it going Dutch when you pay for yourself.

Huh. And do you have a particular feeling about it, or are you just curious?

Curious. And I do have a bit of a feeling about it.

To me, it almost seemed like, are they saying the Dutch people are cheap or don’t want to pay for someone else?

Yes, that’s definitely a fair question about the meaning of that.

You know, when I was growing up, it was such a benign term.

I used to think, when I think of going Dutch, even today, I think of Happy Days, the movie and the TV show, and sock hops, and sharing a root beer float with two straws.

I think of it as really benign.

So I used it my whole life and didn’t think anything about it until I got to know some Dutch people.

And then I was more aware of it.

And it turns out that there are a lot of pejorative expressions in English involving the Dutch.

Like if you talk about a Dutch uncle, that’s somebody who’s particularly stern or Dutch courage is supposed to be courage that you can get only if you’re drinking.

Drinking alcohol.

Yeah, drinking alcohol.

So I have tried to eliminate that from my vocabulary because of the implication that you’re talking about, that Dutch people are particularly cheap.

Tight-fisted or cheap, yeah.

And now this goes back to age-old disputes when the English and the Dutch were trying to control the seas, right?

The pirateer, buccaneer days, right?

Yeah, they had some conflicts back in the 17th century.

So what we do when we’re fighting people is we always make enemies of the other side.

We paint them in the worst light possible.

We say that they’re cheap and that they’re uncouth and uneducated and they don’t know if they’re unclassy.

Yeah, even if we’re not fighting them but we’re just rivals or friendly rivals.

I know in Argentina, you can talk about splitting the check in a way that is in the American style.

Oh, I see.

Tagare alla Americana.

So the assumption is here with going Dutch is that ordinarily somebody else who wasn’t Dutch would be kind enough to pay for everyone.

Or the idea of a Dutch treat when you get invited to the movies and you think you’re being the person’s guest and then you’re expected to pay for the ticket at the window.

Right, right, right.

You think it’s a date and he doesn’t, that sort of thing?

Oh.

Yolanda, does any of this sound fair or just or right?

Sounds fair, but of course then I always think it’s funny anyway.

You know, only in the English language do we call somebody from the Netherlands Dutch,

You know, which is really, of course, sounds like Deutsch.

Right.

And then people make the incorrect assumption that you’re from Holland,

Which, you know, we’re not.

From the Netherlands.

Because Holland’s just really a part of the country.

Right.

And you all have some rivalries with…

The Dutch get a bad rap for something.

Yeah.

Yeah, especially in Belgium, right?

Right, right.

Oh, rivalry.

There is one expression that I know

That is kind of positive about the Dutch,

And it’s to say that the sky is Dutch britches,

Which means very blue,

Because the Dutch used to wear very blue bright pants.

So you say the sky is Dutch britches, which means it’s a clear, sunny day.

Okay, well, that’s good.

You like that one.

I do like that one.

All right, thanks, Rhonda.

Take care now.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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