English words from Dutch
8 English words with Dutch in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
beleaguer
It is probably borrowed from Dutch belegeren (“to besiege”), from Dutch be- (“around”) + leger (“camp”). Barnhart prefers Low German belegeren, a word of the same form. Etymonline calls it a word of…
easel
It is borrowed from Dutch ezel (“ass; easel”), inherited from Middle Dutch esel, which comes from Latin asinus (“ass”) or from its diminutive asellus. It is related to Old English esol (“ass”).
filibuster
It is borrowed from Spanish filibustero (“freebooter”) and from French flibustier (earlier fribustier), ultimately from Dutch vrijbuiter (“freebooter”). English had earlier taken the Dutch word…
gherkin
It is borrowed from Dutch gurken, the plural of gurk “cucumber”, short for augurk, agurk, probably from a Slavic source such as Polish ogórek (“cucumber”), perhaps ultimately from Medieval Greek…
hustle
It is borrowed from Dutch husselen (“to shake, toss”), hutselen, a frequentative of hutsen “to shake”.
ravel
It is borrowed from Dutch ravelen (“to tangle, fray, unweave”) (now rafelen), from ravel, rafel “loose or frayed thread”, of uncertain origin. Barnhart compares Old Norse refill “piece of cloth”.
spook
It is borrowed from Dutch spook (“ghost”), from Middle Dutch spooc (“spook, ghost”). The word has Germanic relatives such as Middle Low German spōk and German Spuk (“ghost, apparition”), but its…
waffle
The noun for a batter cake is borrowed from Dutch wafel, from Middle Dutch wāfel, related to Old High German waba (“honeycomb”) and to weave. The verb meaning “to talk vaguely” is a frequentative of…