Late 19th century: abbreviation of duchess.

From Middle Dutch dutsch 'Dutch, Netherlandish, German': the English word originally denoted speakers of both High and Low German, but became more specific after the United Provinces adopted the Low German of Holland as the national language on independence in 1579.

• From the Middle Ages up to the 17th century Dutch was not restricted to the people and language of the Netherlands, but referred to much of north and central Europe, taking in the peoples of modern Germany and the Low Countries. In 1579 the seven provinces that form the basis of the republic of the Netherlands gained independence and united, adopting the kind of German spoken in Holland as their national language. This change in the political landscape led to the more specific uses of Dutch in modern English. During the 17th century there was great rivalry between the English and the Dutch. The English attributed various undesirable characteristics to their neighbours, including Dutch courage, ‘strength or confidence gained from drinking alcohol’, which managed to imply that the Dutch were both cowards and drunkards. Their language was insulted in double Dutch, ‘gibberish’. In some phrases the Dutch appear to have been singled out simply because they are foreign, as in I'm a Dutchman, used to express disbelief. In the American expression Dutch uncle, ‘a kindly but authoritative figure’, the choice serves to emphasize that the person referred to is not a blood relation. The original wording was ‘I will talk to him like a Dutch uncle’, meaning ‘I will give him a lecture’. Another expression that was originally American is go Dutch, ‘to share the cost of something equally’, first recorded in 1914—the implication, more obvious in Dutch treat, was presumably that the Dutch were mean.