English words from Dutch
Dutch sea power and New Amsterdam left their mark on English, from sailing terms to New York street names and at least one famous gift-giver.
- Aardvark
Aardvark is about as literal as etymology gets: Afrikaans aarde ("earth") + vark ("pig"), given by early European colonists in South Africa who watched the animal shovel through termite mounds with distinctly pig-like enthusiasm. It isn't actually related to…
From the Sat, Aug 8, 2026 roundup → - Easel
The wooden stand that holds a painter's canvas gets its English name from the Dutch word for a donkey, "ezel." The logic is the same beast-of-burden metaphor behind "sawhorse" and "clotheshorse": an "easel" carries a load the way a donkey does, just a canvas…
From the Mon, Sep 7, 2026 roundup → - Filibuster
A filibuster — using prolonged debate to block or delay a vote, a maneuver forever associated with the U.S. Senate — didn't start out as a legislative term at all. It traces through Spanish filibustero and French flibustier back to the Dutch word vrijbuiter…
From the Thu, Aug 20, 2026 roundup → - Iceberg
"Iceberg" is about as literal as etymology gets: it comes from Dutch or Scandinavian roots that translate directly to "ice mountain," borrowed into English by explorers and sailors describing exactly what they were looking at. No hidden backstory here — just…
From the Thu, Aug 20, 2026 roundup → - New Zealand
In December 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman became the first European to sight the islands, naming his discovery Staten Landt — he mistakenly thought it might connect to a landmass of the same name off South America. Dutch cartographers back home quietly…
From the Wed, Aug 26, 2026 roundup → - Reebok
British brothers Joe and Jeff Foster named their athletic shoe company "Reebok" in 1958 after the rhebok, a small, notably fast African antelope — "Reebok" being simply the English spelling of the Afrikaans word for the animal. The name was meant to suggest…
From the Sun, Aug 23, 2026 roundup → - Santa Claus
The plump, white-bearded, chimney-descending gift-giver most of us picture was mostly locked in decades before any soft drink company got involved — and "Santa Claus" was already a working pitchman by then. Back in 1885, Santa appeared in sponsored ads for…
From the Thu, Sep 3, 2026 roundup → - Utrecht
The Dutch city of Utrecht started life as a Roman fort called Traiectum, Latin for "a crossing" — this one over the Rhine. Traiectum shortened in Dutch to "Trecht," and the "U" (from Old Dutch "uut," meaning downriver) got tacked on to distinguish this…
From the Tue, Aug 4, 2026 roundup → - Wall Street
In the 1650s, Dutch colonists in New Amsterdam built a defensive wooden wall along the northern edge of their settlement, meant to protect against English colonial forces and Native American raids. The wall itself never saw real combat and was torn down by…
From the Sun, Aug 30, 2026 roundup → - Yacht
Dutch "jacht" means hunt, and a "jachtschip" was a fast, light vessel the Dutch navy used to chase pirates and smugglers in shallow water. In 1660, the City of Amsterdam presented one, the Mary, to Charles II to celebrate his restoration to the throne. The…
From the Tue, Sep 29, 2026 roundup →