Did you know many words in English are actually originated from another Dutch word?
There’s an estimation that at least 1% of the English words are actually Dutch. And if it wasn’t enough, many of the English expressions also come from the Netherlands oficial language.
Here comes a short list with some of them:
1 - Brooklyn - Breukelen
Yes, this New York City area was named after Breukelen city from the province of Utrecht in the Netherlands.
2 - Harlem - Haarlem
I know, right? So many places! Haarlem it’s another city next to Amsterdam. The reason why so many places in New York city were named after Dutch cities, it’s because of its colonisation. By the way, New York was first called New Amsterdam.
Harlem in the 30s
3 - Geek - Gek
Are you a geek? Well, in Dutch gek means crazy!
4 - Iceberg - Ijsberg
How would you define one? Perhaps a mountain of ice? Because that’s exactly what it means in Dutch. Its = Ice, Berg = Mountain.
the Ijsberg that killed Jack :(
5 - Waffle - Wafel
Lekker ‘or! I mean, yummy!
Yes, besides the differences in syllables, this sounds pretty much the same. By the way, if you ever hit to the Netherlands, don’t forget to try Stroopwafels!
one of the reasons why I am fat
6 - Coleslaw - Koolsla
Just an English way to write Cabbage Salad.
7 - Cookie - Koekjes
Pronunciation a lit bit different, but if you hear a child asking for koekjes, you know what’s about immediately.
8 - Santa Claus - Sinterklaas
I know, you must be perplexed and a bit confused. But Santa Claus comes from Sinter Klaas, how St. Nicholas is popularly called over here.
It got to be named as Santa Claus when New York City was a Dutch colony (as I mentioned above) and people reinvented the tradition.
this one comes with his horse on a boat from Spain...
How crazy is that?
First when I got in the Netherlands, I thought the Dutch dictionary was a bit poor, so they “stole” some words from the English language. What a fool!
Once again we learn how colonisation influences a place and how we become a mix of everything, but hopefully nowadays more globalised than colonised.
What was for you the most surprising word of the list?
Thanks for reading,
B
