VOOZH about

URL: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/old-dutch.3795627/

⇱ old dutch | WordReference Forums


Menu


Install the app
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.

old dutch

Mnemon

Banned
Persian - 𐎱𐎾𐎿𐎡
“Incidentally, ah, where’s your mad young gentleman gone off to?”
“Roger’s with Captain Prentice.” < --- > “The usual Mysterious Microfilm Drill.” Being transacted in some distant room, across a crown-and-anchor game with which chance has very little to do, billows of smoke and chatter, Falkman and His Apache Band subdued over the BBC, chunky pints and slender sherry glasses, winter rain at the windows. Time for closeting, gas logs, shawls against the cold night, snug with your young lady or old dutch or, as here at Snoxall’s, in good company. < ---- >
https://www.penguin.com/ajax/books/excerpt/9781101594650
Gravity's Rainbow Written by: Thomas Pynchon - 1973

It seems to me that "old dutch" here is being used along the lines of "young lady" which I guess is supposed to mean your wife! Have you come across this usage before?
Any idea.

< Quotation reduced to comply with 4- sentence limit (Rule 4). Cagey, moderator >
Last edited by a moderator:
"Old Dutch" is a slang term mean "wife" which apparently originated in London. I don't know if it is still in common use.
My old Dutch (outdated British slang) = my wife

There used to be a music-hall song whose chorus went:


We’ve been together now for forty years
And it don’t seem a day too much,
’Cos there ain’t a lady living in the land
As I’d swap for my dear old Dutch.
No, there ain’t a lady living in the land
As I’d swap for my dear old Dutch.
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom