I live in West Michigan, where there is the largest population of Dutch people outside of Holland. We even have a town on Lake Michigan named Holland. I grew up with Holanders, they were prominent in my High School. They are renowned for being cheapskates, for squeezing a nickel till it screams for mercy. I have seen my Hollander friends, when I was much younger, get into fistfights over who was the bigger skinflint. Its a long running joke in this area...
--- Loran Hughes <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, 2004-10-04 at 14:00, Robert Wright wrote: > > I'm not sure Eric meant to imply that Dutch folks > are in any way inferior, > > though I can definitely see your point, Don. I > have, however, heard some of > > those phrases in my part of the world. I wonder > about the origin, as Dutch > > Auctions, as well as "going Dutch", are common > phrases that mean "even" or > > "equal" in terms of value/cost. Hmm. > > > > Lest I dig my own grave, I'll only offer some > insight as to the origin > of the terms, some of which likely date to the > 1800's and early 1900's. > >From the 1913 Webster's Dictionary: > > http://www.webster-dictionary.org/definition/Dutch > > Jack London also wrote a short story entitled "Dutch > Courage", which was > published in 1900: > > http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/London/Writings/DutchCourage/dutch.html > > Dutch metal is defined as a substitute for gold leaf > and may still be > referred to as such: > > http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/b1/brass.asp > > For the record, I have more than a touch of Dutch in > my family tree. and > most of those phrases were alien to me. > > Loran > > _______________________________________________ > Phono-L mailing list > [email protected] > http://oldcrank.org/mailman/listinfo/phono-l > _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com
