Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A kind of false birth fabled to be produced by Dutch women from sitting over their stoves (Johnson)′ , hence, an abortive scheme or attempt.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of false birth, fabled to be produced by Dutch women from sitting over their stoves; also, an abortion, in a figurative sense; an abortive scheme.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A mouse-like creature which, according to folklore, Dutch women who sit over stoves give birth to.
  • noun figuratively An abortive scheme.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Compare German dialect suttern to boil gently.

Support

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Examples

  • To suffocate him as a monster, or a sooterkin, seemed the only punishment of which he was worthy.

    The Adventures of Hugh Trevor Thomas Holcroft 1777

  • In The Female Physician Maubray had proposed women could give birth to a creature he named a sooterkin.

    Mary Toft - Wikipedia Contributors to Wikimedia projects 2022

Comments

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  • An imaginary kind of afterbirth formerly attributed to Dutch women.

    a1658 CLEVELAND Char. Diurn. Maker (1677) 103 There goes a Report of the Holland Women, that together with their Children, they are delivered of a Sooterkin, not unlike to a Rat, which some imagine to be the Off-spring of the Stoves.

    transf. Chiefly applied to persons in allusive senses (to Dutchman, chimney-sweeps, Negroes etc.)

    Applied to literary compositions, etc., of a supplementary or imperfect character.

    —adapted from OED

    July 8, 2008

  • Cute word, kind of gross etymology.

    July 9, 2008

  • Someone has a -kin list ... c_b? Qroqqa's citation reads like one of sionnach's specials, so this word must be amazing!

    July 9, 2008

  • The Dutch have odd habits, by Jove!

    And sooterkin shows us a trove:

    Just why should Dutch ladies

    Be toasting their nates

    Or want to sit over a stove?

    January 7, 2019

  • Best use of nates so far in 2019.

    January 8, 2019

  • Seconded.

    January 10, 2019