double Dutch en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
- /dʌb.əl ˈdʌtʃ/
Etymology
From double (“twice, i.e. more than”) + Dutch. For sense 1: Dutch (which historically had a wider meaning) as a foreign language was not easily understood, so anything completely incomprehensible would be double Dutch, i.e. twice as hard as Dutch. Sense 2 expands on this meaning.
Meanings
-
(uncountable) Incomprehensible language or speech.
“Tell him I don’t know what he’s talking about. It’s double Dutch to me.”
1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 121:
- (uncountable) A language game akin to pig Latin.
- (uncountable) A game of jump rope with two ropes and frequently two jumpers.
- (colloquial, uncountable) Sex using a condom and the contraceptive pill at the same time.
Synonyms
gibberish · all Greek to me · nonsense · gobbledygook
Translations (24)
tr anlaşılmaz (incomprehensible language) · fi heprea (incomprehensible language) · nl wartaal (incomprehensible language) · de Kauderwelsch (incomprehensible language) · es chino básico (incomprehensible language) · el κινέζικα (incomprehensible language) · hu halandzsa (incomprehensible language) · fr charabia (incomprehensible language) · tr saçmalık (incomprehensible language) · it arabo (incomprehensible language) · tr deli saçması (incomprehensible language) · is golfranska (incomprehensible language) · pl chińszczyzna (incomprehensible language) · is skollaþýska (incomprehensible language) · nl koeterwaals (incomprehensible language) · fi siansaksa (incomprehensible language) · is kúrelska (incomprehensible language) · it turco (incomprehensible language) · ru кита́йская гра́мота (incomprehensible language) · bg неразбираем език (incomprehensible language) · pt grego (incomprehensible language) · es un chino (incomprehensible language) · ru тараба́рщина (incomprehensible language) · is hrognamál (incomprehensible language)