英和和英

語源

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.

発音

• IPA: /dʌb.əl ˈdʌtʃ/

名詞

double Dutch (uncountable)

1. Incomprehensible language or speech.
   • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 121:

     “Tell him I don’t know what he’s talking about. It’s double Dutch to me.”

2. A language game akin to pig Latin.
3. A game of jump rope with two ropes and frequently two jumpers.
4. (colloquial) Sex using a condom and the contraceptive pill at the same time.

同意語

• all Greek to me
• gibberish
• gobbledygook
• nonsense