sooterkin
English edit
Etymology edit
From dialectal Dutch zoeterke(n) (“sweatheart”) (compare zoetje, zoetke (“sweetheart”)), equivalent to sweet + -kin or soot + -kin.
Noun edit
sooterkin (plural sooterkins)
- A mouse-like creature which, according to folklore, Dutch women who sit over stoves give birth to.
- (figuratively) An abortive scheme.
- 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:
- Fruits of dull heat, and sooterkins of wit.
- (colloquial) A Dutch person. (Can we add an example for this sense?)