BUT A POOR REFLECTION: Netherlands USA

Friday, December 28, 2007

Netherlands USA - part 2

The American language of today still contains some Dutch words. With the game kolf the word 'golf' stuck, with skating the word 'skate' from schaats. The Dutch seafaring tradition brought the words 'skipper,' 'marine', 'hoist,' 'yacht' and many others some by way of (British) English, some directly into American speech.
Some linguists believe that the word Yankee is actually a corrupted form of the Dutch name Jan-Kees (1, 2).

There are more 'American-English' words and names with a Dutch origin. Do you want to have some examples? Dollar = daalder (= old Dutch currency), boss = baas, waffle = wafel, cookie = koekje and Santa Claus = Sinterklaas.

The ancestors of Franklin D. Roosevelt, US president from 1934 to 1945, arrived from Holland in New Amsterdam in about 1649.

Various historians have argued that the American Declaration of Independence (1776) was inspired by the 1581 Plakkaat van Verlatinghe, in which the Dutch had once rejected the authority of the King of Spain. When the Dutch abjured the Spanish king in the year 1581, they had the same 'legalistic' approach as the Americans later and they declared to the world:

'As it is apparent to all that a prince is constituted by God to be the ruler of the people... and whereas God did not create the people slaves to their prince, to obey his commands, whether right or wrong, but rather the prince for the sake of the subjects... And when he does not behave thus, but on the contrary oppresses them... they may not only disallow his authority, but legally proceed to the choice of another prince for their defence...'

Aren't these words reminiscent of Jefferson's text in the American Declaration of Independence? (3.)

"In love of liberty and in the defense of it, Holland has been our example." Benjamin Franklin

The Dutch in America
The USA and the Netherlands

1 comments:

Carol Douglas said...: I think our Founding Fathers, who were men of letters, would have known the writings of Erasmus and the history of the Eighty Years War. Particularly so, as they attempted to throw off the domination of a distant king.

Now, I have to go do something useful! Thanks for an awesome series of posts.; 12/28/2007 5:00 pm

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God loves us

Have you ever wondered why God gives so much? We could exist on far less. He could have left the world flat and grey; we wouldn’t have known the difference. But he didn’t. He splashed orange in the sunrise and cast the sky in blue. And if you love to see geese as they gather, chances are you’ll see that too. Did he have to make the squirrel’s tail furry? Was he obliged to make the birds sing? And the funny way that chickens scurry or the majesty of thunder when it rings? Why give a flower fragrance? Why give food its taste? Could it be he loves to see that look upon your face?

Max Lucado - He Chose the Nails

Sadhu Sundar Singh

I do not condemn theologians wholesale, but it is unfortunately the fashion in Western thinking to doubt and deny everything. I protest this tendency. I never advise anyone to consult theologians, because all too often they have completely lost all sense of spiritual reality. They can explain Greek words and all that, but they spend too much time among their books and not enough time with the Master in prayer. It is not that I oppose all education, but education without life is certainly dangerous. You must stop examining spiritual truths like dry bones! You must break open the bones and take in the life-giving marrow.

Oswald Chambers

In the Bible clouds are always associated with God. Clouds are the sorrows, sufferings, or providential circumstances, within or without our personal lives, which actually seem to contradict the sovereignty of God. Yet it is through these very clouds that the Spirit of God is teaching us how to walk by faith. If there were never any clouds in our lives, we would have no faith. "The clouds are the dust of His feet" (Nahum 1:3). They are a sign that God is there. What a revelation it is to know that sorrow, bereavement, and suffering are actually the clouds that come along with God! God cannot come near us without clouds— He does not come in clear-shining brightness. (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, July 29th)