Douch

Douch (/daʊtʃ/) is an English surname meaning German.[1]

Douch
Pronunciation/daʊtʃ/
Language(s)English
Origin
Language(s)Pre-modern English
MeaningGerman
Region of originEngland
Other names
See alsoDeutsch

Etymology

Douch is an archaic English orthography of Dutch.[1]

When this orthography was used, Douch (or Dutch) was an English-language adjective synonymous with German sensu lato or Germanic, only acquiring a narrower definition in modern usage as an adjective for the Netherlands.[1]

John Russell Smith, in Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom (1860), writes the following entry for Douch:[1]

DOUCH. An old orthography of 'Dutch,' by which however we must understand, not a Hollander, but a German: the latter word being of rather recent importation into English. The first translation of the whole Bible into our language, by Miles Coverdale, is stated on the title page to have been rendered "out of the Douche (meaning German) and Latyn into Englyshe, 1535." Even so lately as 1660, Howell, in the preface of his Lexicon says, "the root of most of the English language is Dutch," by which of course he means the Teutonic or old German.

The above fact is evident in the common etymological origin of Douch (or Dutch) with the German-language word Deutsch (which means German).

People

Notable people with this surname include:

gollark: I mean, for apocalypse-proofing, paper is probably better, but for everyday use electronically stored stuff is better I think, mostly because you can copy it.
gollark: I find digital systems waaay better for preserving things than physical media, unless there's some DRM stuff in play.
gollark: Very fancy clothes might come with fabricators in them to make small things you want from the pockets but which they don't actually contain.
gollark: The Kindle reader applications have a nice feature where you can select a word and it pulls the definition from the dictionary.
gollark: What is this ”project” of which you speak?

References
  1. Lower, M A (1860). Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russell Smith. p. 93.
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