Till late in the seventeenth century ‘Dutch’ (‘deutsch,’ lit. belonging to the people) meant generally ‘German,’ and a ‘Dutchman’ a native of Germany, while what we now term a Dutchman was then a Hollander. In America this with so many other usages is retained, and Germans are now often called ‘Dutchmen’ there.
Though the root of the English language be Dutch, yet she may be said to have been inoculated afterwards upon a French stock.—Howell, Lexicon Tetraglotton, Preface.
Germany is slandered to have sent none to this war [the Crusades] at this first voyage; and that other pilgrims, passing through that country, were mocked by the Dutch, and called fools for their pains.—Fuller, Holy War, b. i. c. 13.
At the same time began the Teutonic Order, consisting only of Dutchmen, well descended.—Id. ib. b. ii. c. 16.
| Eager, | } |
| Eagerness. |
The physical and literal sense of ‘eager,’ that is, sharp or acrid (Fr. aigre, Lat. acrem), has quite departed from the word. It occasionally retained this, long after it was employed in the secondary meaning which is its only one at present.
She was lyk thyng for hungre deed,
That ladde hir lyf oonly by breed
Kneden with eisel[15] strong and egre.
Romaunt of the Rose, 215.