Dutch date en · NOUN
Etymology
From Dutch (“substitute, inferior, ersatz”) + date, ostensibly modeled on Dutch treat.
Meanings
-
An occasion, particularly a romantic outing, where the participants split the cost.
If we started a campaign for "dutch dates" and succeeded in putting it over, it would become the accustomed thing to do […]
1927 December 8, M. J. Kerner, “Grins and Growls to the Editor”, in James F. Wickizer, editor, California Daily Bruin, volume V, number 55, Los Angeles, page 4:Even those boys and girls who would accept a dutch date now and then were not willing to make the arrangment public. […] If dutch dating was absolutely necessary, the girl should give the money to her date ahead of time so it would at least look as if he were paying her way.
1988, Beth L. Bailey, “The Worth of a Date”, in From Front Porch to Back Seat, paperback edition, Johns Hopkins University Press, published 1989, →ISBN, page 59:Each year the clubs take a one day trip to some place of interest […] On [the second year] the girls furnished good lunch, feeding nearly 60 hungry young people for a cost of $10.00 beside what they brought from home. Last summer we went on a Dutch date to the Henry Ford Museum […]
1940 April, Jewel Pittman, “Club Takes Tours”, in G. L. Noble, L. E. Troeger, editors, National 4-H Club News, volume XVIII, number 4, Chicago: The National Committee on Boys and Girls Club Work, page 4:Two recent examples of the so-called originality and unconventionality of youth are notorious, namely, “jazz music” and “dutch dates.” And neither of these is due directly to youth. They merely are evils consequent upon the originality of parents.
1931, The New Mexico Quarterly, page 195:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dutch dates | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| dutch date | alternative | lexicographic |