Dutchland

English

Etymology

From Middle English Duchelond (“Germany”), from Middle Dutch duutsche land or from late Middle High German diutschland, both equivalent to Dutch +‎ -land. Cognate with West Frisian Dútslân (“Germany”), Dutch Duitsland (“Germany”), German Deutschland (“Germany”), Swedish Tyskland (“Germany”), Icelandic Þýskaland (“Germany”).

Proper noun

Dutchland

1. Pennsylvania Dutchland
2. (dated) The region of Continental Europe populated by speakers of Low, Middle and High West Germanic languages, roughly corresponding to the Netherlands, Flanders, Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland.
   • 1902, John Fiske, The Dutch and Quaker colonies in America:

     The dwellers in those mountain regions, along with the greater part of the lowland population, we call by a Latin name "Germans," as if we had first learned about them by reading Cæsar's commentaries. One can see how the popular name "Dutchland" would naturally remain associated especially with that bit of shore with which our forefathers had most to do.

3. (obsolete) Germany.

   Synonyms: Germanland, Germany

   • 1688, George Etherege, in a letter (written from Regensburg (Ratisbon)) to Middleton, printed in 1982 in A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, […] and Other Stage Personnel in London, volume 8, page 170:

     […] a comedian no less handsome and no less kind in Dutchland than Mrs. Johnson was in England […]

   • 1838, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, sixteenth edition (printed from the authorized copy of 1651), Democritus Junior to the Reader, page 51:

     I observe, in Turinge in Dutchland, […]

   • 1886, The Education Outlook:

     Before a few weeks ago I always held England for the greateste land of the whole world after Dutchland, and the Englanders for the best-lighted folk.

4. (dated, rare, now often humorous) Holland; The Netherlands (the region inhabited by the Dutch).
   • 1822-26, Ebenezer Sibly, An Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology, part 3, page 995:

     Isle of Ameyland, Dutchland - German ocean - 7 30

     Amsterdam, ditto, - Ditto - 3 00

   • 1913, Hugh Johnston, Travel films: being pen pictures of Europe:

     The finest gallery of pictures in Dutchland is the Mesdag Museum, containing the art collections of the painter H. W. Mesdag.

Derived terms

• Low Dutchland
• High Dutchland
• Pennsylvania Dutchland

See also

• Germanland