Dutch auction

Posted by James Briggs on October 03, 2002

In Reply to: Dutch auction posted by Adrian Hobbs on October 03, 2002

: A lot of Dutch phrases go by associating Dutchness with madness (such as Double Dutch) but what is the origin of this one?

"I'm a Dutchman"; "Dutch courage", "Dutch treat", etc all come from the time of the 17th century when the Dutch were hated military and commercial rivals of the English. Other examples are; "Dutch auction" (where everything is backwards), "double Dutch" (ie gibberish) and "to go Dutch" (ie to pay for yourself), a variant of Dutch treat.