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How do people from the Netherlands refer to themselves? "Dutch" or "Netherlander"? Have Netherlanders shied away from the word "Dutch", as a reaction to the d
by alejohausner 8y ago
How do people from the Netherlands refer to themselves? "Dutch" or "Netherlander"? Have Netherlanders shied away from the word "Dutch", as a reaction to the derogatory connotation that the word carries in English?
I'm asking because I read somewhere that "Dutch" was the original term used by inhabitants of the Rhine delta to describe themselves.
- 0xcoffee 8y agoDutch person here with my anecdote. Call myself Dutch and didn't know 'Dutch' has a derogatory connotation. Never heard the term 'Netherlander'
- Symbiote 8y agoAnyone can derogate any nationality, but that doesn't make the word itself derogatory. Some terms were once acceptable, but with widespread racism in the 20th century are now offensive (British English examples: Paki and Jap), but Dutch is certainly not one of these. There is no other reasonable word for a person from the Netherlands.