dutch courage

[Anders]

curious about the origin this particular drink. Can anyone enlighten me please?

[sft42]

As far as I am aware there isn't an actual drink called "Dutch Courage" (I stand to be corrected on that though)...the sayings about anything dutch come from the time of the 17th century when the Dutch were hated military and commercial rivals of the English. Examples include Dutch reckoning, a bill that is presented without any details, and which only gets bigger if you question it, and a Dutch widow, a prostitute. In the same spirit are Dutch auction, one in which the prices go down instead of up; Dutch courage, temporary bravery induced by alcohol; Dutch metal, an alloy of copper and zinc used as a substitute for gold foil; Dutch comfort or Dutch consolation, in which somebody might say "thank God it is no worse!"; Dutch concert, in which each musician plays a different tune; Dutch uncle, someone who criticises or rebukes you with the frankness of a relative; and Dutch treat, one in which those invited pay for themselves.

[Quizmonster]

If you'd like the recipe for the cocktail called a 'Dutch Courage', click http://www.in-the-spirit.co.uk/howDetailed.php?nam
e=Dutch%20Courage Like most such concoctions - Harvey Wallbangers, Screwdrivers etc - it probably started life in a bar somewhere...Amsterdam, perhaps, in this case?..with a barman (probably English and determined to have another go at the old enemy!)

[darth vader]

the phrase came into being along time before the drink did, and i would imagine the latter was named after the former, meaning to get false bravery through alcohol

[Quizmonster]

You're right,Darth; there wasn't too much in the way of cocktail-shakin' goin' on in the 17th century! But the questioner asked about the drink and its possible origin, rather than the phrase.

[Moog]

I've heard the explanation to be related to Dutch sailors who were the only people brave enough to travel up the Thames to trade with London during the plague, the tale goes that either they consumed alcohol in advance to give them the courage to face the diseased city or alternatively that they were paid with Gin for the courage they displayed. I like the later version but suspect it may be unfounded, somewhere like snopes will probably have something about it

[Quizmonster]

Regarding the phrase and its suggestion of drunkenness, the strange thing is that it appeared nowhere in print until Sir Walter Scott penned it in 'Woodstock' in 1826...some 200 years after the rivalry between British and Dutch that supposedly occasioned it! All reliable idiom-sources claim that connection, but the phrase certainly doesn't appear to have been in vogue at the time.

[beweypm]

I believe Moog is right as to the origin of the phrase. I remember being told this version of its origin by the tour guide on a Thames boat trip