go Dutch
idiom (informal)

- to agree to share the cost of something, especially a meal

- to go to a movie, restaurant, etc., as a group with each person paying for his or her own ticket, food, etc.

Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

To "go Dutch" (sometimes written with lower-case dutch) is a contraction of "In the Dutch fashion", meaning "to pay ones share". It is also called "Dutch date", "doing Dutch" and "Dutch treat".

The first recorded use of “Dutch treat” was in an 1873 editorial in The Baltimore American, which suggested that drinking to excess could be stopped if saloon owners insisted on a Dutch treat policy, meaning that each man should be responsible for his own bar tab. It was a point of pride among the German immigrants to never be beholden to anyone and to only purchase what they could afford.

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7 DUTCH DICTIONS

- Double Dutch = incomprehensible talk; gibberish.

- Dutch courage = courage that is gained by drinking alcohol.

- Dutch uncle = a person who criticises or scolds severely and frankly.

- Dutch auction = a method of selling in which the price is reduced until a buyer is found.

- Dutch gold = a low-cost, imported, pilsner lager beer sold only in Ireland.

- Sharing Dutch = having a joint ownership of luxury goods. For example, four people share the ownership of a plane, boat, or car.

- Dutch wife = a long body-length pillow that can be held or wrapped around one’s body while sleeping. The origin of this term is thought to be from the Dutch colony of Indonesia where Dutch traders would spend long periods away from their wives.

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“When eating out with colleagues, it simplifies things if we all GO DUTCH.”

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