Double Dutch in English Trivia Quiz

Answer: pig

Although in English "aardvark" is at the very front alphabetically, this does not hold in Dutch, because the vowel combination 'aa' is quite common in Dutch. Words that come before "aardvarken" in Dutch include "Aa" (old word for water, nowadays the name of various rivers), "aagtappel" (a type of apple), "aai" (caress), "aal" (eal), "aan" (a proposition related to "on"), "aap" (monkey or ape), "aar" (ear of grain) and of course "aarde" (earth).

Answer: hunt

The Dutch word 'jacht' is derived from the verb 'jagen'. Originally this meant "to go fast", because of which a fast sailing ship was called a "jacht". The meaning "hunt" has come about via the development "to go fast" -> "to chase" -> "to hunt".

Answer: baas

All four are existing Dutch words. 'Bos' means 'forest' (compare English 'bush'), 'boos' means 'angry' (formerly also 'bad', like German 'böse') and 'bas' means 'bass' (in its musical meanings).

One reason why 'master' was not liked by American workmen, is that it was the same word used by slaves to denote their master.

Answer: apartheid

'Apart' is the same word as in English, '-heid' is a suffix to form a noun from a pronoun. The whole is the name for the South African political system from 1948 to 1990, when the black majority were second rate citizens, all power lying with the white minority. In extension the word is also used for other systems of racial segregation.

Answer: Gerardus Mercator

Gerard Mercator (his original name was Gerard de Kremer, but he latinized it) is also known for the Mercator projection, a cartographic projection in which a line of constant compass bearing is a straight line.

Atlases often show the Greek god Atlas who was forced to carry the Earth (in the original myth the heavens) on his back; however Mercator originally named his book after another Atlas, a king of Mauretania who was known as a scientist and philosopher.

Answer: schaats

'De schaats' (I won't be bothering you with the pronounciation) was originally derived as 'the skates', but the English felt that 'skates' looked like a plural (the plural of Dutch schaats is 'schaatsen', by the way), from which a singular 'skate' was formed.

The other words are Dutch words as well: 'schets' means 'sketch' (mostly in the meaning of 'drawing'), 'schat' means 'treasure' and 'schiet' is the singular of the verb 'schieten' (to shoot).

Answer: a mountain

Not many icebergs in the Netherlands, but in the past the Dutch went to the North Pole area quite often, in particular to Svalbard (then known as Spitsbergen), to catch whales. The English word 'iceberg' had its effect on Dutch as well, by getting the proverb 'tip of the iceberg' translated back into Dutch to 'topje van de ijsberg'.

Answer: farmer

A related word in English is "neighbor" - a "nigh (near) boer".

The Boers did not want to submit to the British government when they took over the Cape Colony, and travelled ('trekked') inland to areas outside the colony. There they established a few independent countries such as the Orange Free State and Natal, but during the two so-called Boer Wars they were subdued by the colonial government, and their lands became part of the colony that later became the country of South Africa.

Answer: permission

The meaning combining 'permission' and 'holiday' is of course "permission to be absent". In Dutch the word is still used in both meanings, although it is starting to become somewhat archaic in the original meaning.

Answer: Manhattan

Harlem is named after Haarlem, a city near Amsterdam, Flushing after Vlissingen, in the southwestern province of Zeeland and Brooklyn after Breukelen, near Utrecht. Manhattan comes from a native American word recorded as "Mana-hatta", which is possibly connected to the Munsee "munahan", meaning "island"

Other New York names of Dutch provenance include Broadway (broodweg = bread street), Wall Street (from "walstraat", meaning the same) and Staten Island (after the Staten-Generaal, the Dutch parliament).