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 overstoves give birth to. - noun figuratively An
abortive scheme .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Compare German dialect suttern to boil gently.
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Examples
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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
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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
qroqqa commented on the word sooterkin
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
arby commented on the word sooterkin
Cute word, kind of gross etymology.
July 9, 2008
bilby commented on the word sooterkin
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
qms commented on the word sooterkin
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
bilby commented on the word sooterkin
Best use of nates so far in 2019.
January 8, 2019
rolig commented on the word sooterkin
Seconded.
January 10, 2019