List of English words of Dutch origin  

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This is an incomplete list of Dutch expressions used in English; some are relatively common (e.g. cookie), some are comparatively rare. In a survey by Joseph M. Williams in Origins of the English Language it is estimated that about 1% of English words are of Dutch origin.

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2004 list

aardvark 
from aardvarken
ahoy 
from hoi (="hello")
apartheid 
from apartheid (via Afrikaans)
berm 
from berm
to bluff 
from bluffen (="to brag")
boom 
from boom (="tree")
boss 
from baas
brandy/ brandy wine 
from brandewijn (=literally "burn wine")
bundle 
from bundel
buoy 
from boei (="shackle" or "buoy")
coleslaw 
from koolsla
cookie 
from koekje
cruise 
from (door)kruisen (="to cross paths or to cross")
deck 
from dek ="covering" (entered English as "the cover over a ship's hold")
(boat)dock 
from dok
to drill 
from drillen
dike, dyke 
from dijk (="wall to prevent flooding")
easel 
from ezel (=originally "donkey")
to etch 
from etsen
to filibuster 
from vrijbuiter (="pirate") from French filibustier from Spanish filibustero
freebooter 
from vrijbuiter
freight 
from vracht
frolic 
from vrolijk (="cheerful, gay")
furlough 
from verlof (="permission (to leave)")
gas 
from gas, a neologism from Christiaan Huygens, derived from the Greek Chaos
gin 
from jenever
to grab 
from grijpen (="to seize, to grasp, to snatch")
guild 
from gilde (="precursor to unions")
halibut 
from heilbot (=literally "holy flounder")
to hoist 
from hijsen
holster:holster 
from holster
Hottentot 
from Hottentot
iceberg 
from ijsberg
keel 
from kiel
to keelhaul 
from kielhalen (=literally "to haul keel")
knapsack 
from knapzak (=literally "bag of food")
landscape 
from landschap
leak 
from lek
lottery 
from loterij
maelstrom 
from maalstroom
manekin 
from manneken (=literally "small man")
measles 
from mazelen
moras 
from moeras
offal 
from afval (=literally "that which falls off"")
polder 
from polder
pump 
from pomp
quack 
from kwakzalver (= literally "someone who daubs ointments")
roster 
from rooster (="schedule, or. grating")
to rove 
from roven (="to rob")
[[rucksack 
from rugzak (=literally "back-bag")
Santa Claus 
from Sinterklaas (="Saint Nicholas")
scow 
from schouw
skate, to skate 
from schaats. The noun was originally adopted as in Dutch, with 'skates' being the singular form of the noun; due to the similarity to regular English plurals this form was ultimately used as the plural while 'skate' was derived for use as singular."
sketch 
from schets
skipper 
from schipper (=literally "shipper")
to snack 
from snakken (="to gasp", originally "to eat")
sled, sleigh 
from slede, slee
sloop 
from sloep
to slurp 
from slurpen
smack 
from smak
to smelt 
from smelten (="to melt")
to smuggle 
from smokkelen
snuff 
from snuiftabak (=literally "sniff tobacco")
splinter 
from splinter
to split 
from splijten
spook 
from spook (="ghost(ly image)")
to stoke 
from stoken (="stoke a fire")
stoop 
from stoep (="pavement/sidewalk")
stove 
from stoof
waffle 
from wafel
wagon 
from wagen (="cart, carriage, wagon")
yacht 
from jacht (=originally "hunt")
yankee 
from Jan Kees, a personal name, originally used mockingly to describe pro-French revolutionary citizens, with allusion to the small keeshond dog, then for "colonials" in New Amsterdam) (Note: this is not the only possible etymology for the word yankee. For one thing, the Oxford English Dictionary has quotes with the term from as early as 1765, quite some time before the French Revolution.)


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