▪ I. Holland1
(ˈhɒlənd)
[Du. Holland, in earliest sources Holtlant, f. holt wood + -lant land; a name whereby was designated ‘locus quidam silvis et paludibus inhabitabilis..ubi videlicet Mosa et Wal fluvius corrivantur’, i.e. the district about Dordrecht, the nucleus of the original county of Holland.
This derivation, which, though it has been impugned, appears to be finally established (see W. F. Gombault in Taal en Letteren VIII. 197, April 1898), separates the name from that of Holland in South Lincolnshire, the physical conformation of which has often caused it to be associated with Dutch Holland. The English name seems to be f. hol, holl a., sense 2 + land; but there is the difficulty that it appears in Domesday Book as Hoiland, a form not easy to account for.]
1. a. The name of a province of the Northern Netherlands, formerly a county or ‘graafschap’, comitatus, of the German Empire, now usually extended by Englishmen and other foreigners to the kingdom of the Netherlands.
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 35 Holaund and Henawde they helde of hyme bothe. 1436 Libel in Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 180 But they of Holonde, at Caleyse byene oure felles And oure wolles. 1449 Paston Lett. No. 68. I. 86 The cheff schyppys of Duchelond, Holond, Selond, and Flaundrys. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §143 He went ambassador into Holland to the States General. 1655 Sir W. Lower tr. De Cerizier's Innoc. Lord 67 All those effeminates, whom the Cloth of Holland hurteth. |
| fig. 1866 Howells Venet. Life 256 The vegetable and fruit market where whole Hollands of cabbage and Spains of onions opened on the view. |
b. attrib. esp. in names of products received from Holland: see quots. Holland-cloth: see 2. Holland sauce = Hollandaise. Holland-toad, a small Dutch herring-boat.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. iii. (1586) 147 Next are commended the Holland Cheese, the Cheese of Normandy, and the English Cheese. 1614 Eng. Way to Wealth in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) III. 237 Vessels of divers fashions..go..for herrings..and they are called..Holland-toads. 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. 4 Lime mixed with Holland soap eats deep enough into the flesh. 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 58 A slate formerly taken up at East Alwington, and exported under the name of Holland blues. 1877 E. S. Dallas Kettner's Bk. of Table 162 Dutch or Holland Sauce: Sauce Hollandaise. 1892 [see Dutch a. 3 b]. |
2. a. A linen fabric, originally called, from the province of Holland in the Netherlands, Holland cloth. When unbleached called brown Holland.
| 1427 Wills & Inv. N. C. (Surtees 1835) 77 Unum super⁓pellicium novum de holand-cloth. c 1450 Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 241 A shert of feyn Holond. 1502 Arnolde Chron. (1811) 206 Item a pece Holland or ony other lynnen cloth. 1542 Nottingham Rec. III. 220 Thre elnes of Holand cloth. 1551–2 Househ. Acc. P'cess Eliz. in Camden Misc. II. 31 For vj. ellnes of hollande for towelles. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iii. iii. 82 Holland of eight shillings an Ell. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 169 Women..cover their heads with a coyfe of fine holland linen cloth. 1661 in J. Russell Haigs (1881) 470 To bay holen..to make bands of. 1666 Dryden Ann. Mirab. ccvi, Some..For folded turbans finest holland bear. 1673–4 Grew Anat. Trunks ii. vii. §13 All our fine Hollands are made of Flax. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Holland or Holland-Cloth, a kind of Linnen Cloth made in that Country. 1848 Dickens Dombey iii, Every chandelier or lustre, muffled in Holland. 1852 R. S. Surtees Sponge's Sp. Tour (1893) 134 He had the house put away in brown Holland, the carpets rolled up, the pictures covered, the statues shrouded in muslin. 1884 Times (weekly ed.) 12 Sept. 7/1 Frocks of neat brown holland embroidered with scarlet. |
b. attrib. or in Comb.: of Holland (cloth).
| 1554 Bury Wills (Camden) 146 Oon paier of holland shetes. 1660 in Harl. Misc. (1811) VII. 198 Six dozen of large fine Holland handkerchiefs. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 518 ¶9 An open breast, with an audacious display of the Holland shirt. 1879 Edna Lyall Won by Waiting xxvi, Looking cool and countrified in their brown holland suits. |
3. Comb. (in sense 2), as holland-weaver; holland-lined adj.
| 1895 Westm. Gaz. 13 Sept. 3/1 Ancient holland-lined barouches. |
▪ II. Holland2
(ˈhɒlənd)
The name of J. P. Holland (1840–1914), the designer of a class of submarines adopted by the American navy, used as the proper name of the first submarine of this type and afterwards generically.
| 1899 Westm. Gaz. 7 Dec. 2/3 The President of the official Naval Board, and several of its members have signed a statement declaring that their ‘Holland’ has fulfilled all requirements in her trial trip. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXII. 576/2 The Holland, a smaller boat, having a length of about 59 ft., though begun after the Plunger, has already been completed. Ibid., The latest Holland design is shown in Fig. 95. 1906 Daily Chron. 8 Sept. 5/3 The original Holland class of submarine. |