For the first nine or ten years of her life, the 18th-century abolitionist Sojourner Truth spoke only Dutch. She later used her accent to great effect in her stirring speeches. As Jeroen Dewulf, director of Dutch Studies at University of California...
The idiom “kick the bucket,” meaning to die, does not originate from the concept of kicking a bucket out from under one’s feet. It has to do with an older meaning of bucket that refers to the wooden beam often found in a barn roof...
Ever try to write a well-known passage in limerick form? It’s harder than you think. How about this one: “There once was a lady who’s sure / All that glitters is golden and pure/ There’s a stairway that heads up to heaven...
Bonspiel is a word for a curling match, and derives from the Dutch term spiel, meaning “game.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Etymology of Bonspiel” Grant, I did not know until yesterday what a Bonspiel is...
In English, we might say that someone born to a life of luxury was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. In Swedish, though, the image is different. Someone similarly spoiled is said to “slide in on a shrimp sandwich.” For more...
Yolanda from San Antonio, a native of the Netherlands, wonders whether going Dutch, meaning that each person pays their own way, implies that Dutch people are cheap. The phrase belongs to a cluster of English expressions that cast the Dutch in an...
