Words from Middle Dutch
12 words in Curio passed through Middle Dutch on their way into English.
About Middle Dutch
Low Franconian group of the West Germanic languages · an earlier stage of a language still spoken today
Where
Not recorded in the sources
When
Speakers
No reliable count
No census of its speakers exists.
Family path
- Frankish
- Old Dutch
- Middle Dutch
- Middle FrenchDutchMiddle EnglishScottish Gaelic
- English
Where it came from
Middle Dutch is the collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects descended from Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500, before Modern Dutch emerged. In that period a Medieval Dutch literature developed, which had not existed in Old Dutch.
Source: Wikipedia
Family
Middle Dutch grew out of Old Dutch.
The words, A to Z
- boulevard
A wide, tree-lined street was once, quite literally, a fortress wall.
- coleslaw
This crunchy side dish carries a name that's just cabbage and salad stacked together.
- cork
The stopper in your wine bottle traveled through Dutch and Spanish before it ever touched English.
- excise
One little word hides two separate histories that just happened to end up looking alike.
- freight
A word that once meant simply 'what a ship is fully stocked with' now carries the whole weight of the world's cargo.
- landscape
A word that once meant nothing more than a stretch of land found its true calling once painters picked up a brush.
- mud
The soft, wet ground under your boots carries a name that may stretch back to an ancient word for simply being damp.
- quail
To lose your nerve was once, quite literally, to suffer.
- scone
This teatime staple's name may trace back to either fine flour or a humble mouthful.
- skipper
The person steering the boat and the butterfly darting over the meadow share a name but not a family tree.
- sleigh
The word for a winter ride glides straight out of the same root as 'slide.'
- smuggle
There's a reason this word for sneaking goods feels like it's slipping past you as you say it.