ETYMOLOGY 101

This week’s word has little use in an everyday English conversation, but it can easily impress friends or family if you find yourself reading a European newspaper in their presence. A sentence like “Did you read this little feuilleton accusing Chirac of being churlish with the Brits?” will leave your listeners bewildered.

The word is a diminutive of the French word feuille (pronounced foy), which means “leaf.” Feuilleton therefore literally means “leaflet.” The term came into use after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, when French newspapers were faced with a shortage of war news and had to fill up their pages with lighter material.

For a more extensive discussion of diminutives, see “Plain English” in Quotidian 1.7.

WELL I'LL BE!
THE ANSWER TO A QUESTION YOU NEVER ASKED

Which is it: Holland or the Netherlands?

This question came up when I was on the train from Brussels to Amsterdam. One of my fellow travelers asked me what the capital of Holland was, and I was stumped. I’m pretty sure it’s Amsterdam I thought. Yes, it is Amsterdam, but the fact that I didn’t know bothered me, especially since I was in the presence of residents of that fair country. I resolved not to be another “dumb American,” and to spread the good word to others.

The correct name is The Netherlands, since Holland is actually a smaller portion of the country, covering two of twelve provinces (North and South Holland, or, in Dutch: Noord-Holland and Zuid-Holland). Holland was long the cultural, political, and economic center of the area, and many of the largest cities (such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam) are located within it. Dutch merchants would sail from these cities to all corners of Europe and the world, and many Europeans would come to trade in the cities of Holland. As a result, most people heard of the area as Holland, rather than its actual name, the Republic of the Seven United Provinces of the Netherlands (small wonder the former name stuck).

This more cumbersome title was the official name for the region from 1581 to 1795. Before 1581, the region was a collection of duchies and counties, which eventually came under the control of Charles V and his son, King Philip II of Spain. Determined not to succumb to Philip’s efforts to modernize and centralize the area, the duchies signed the Treaty of Utrecht, in which they promised to support each other against Philip. This agreement lasted until 1795, when the French invaded and established the short-lived Batavian Republic.