The Dutch; they have Amsterdam, they invented the original Zealand, they have arguably the weirdest language that uses western characters, and they're under constant attack by an angry sea. So what do you get when you take all of that and double it? Netherlandemonium!
The Origin of Double Dutch, by Emma Span:
Double Dutch is an instantly recognizable shorthand for "Summer in the City." There's some debate over the origins of the term, but the most often repeated version, favored by the National Double Dutch League, is that it came from British settlers in New Amsterdam in the 1600s, who saw Dutch children playing with two jump ropes and named it accordingly. On the other hand, some etymologists believe that the old phrase "double dutch" -- which meant "gibberish," or referred to any incomprehensible language -- wasn't applied to the game until the late 19th century. Perhaps it was chosen just because of the "double" ropes, and sounded catchy; or perhaps because the sport looked complicated and tricky to outsiders. Whenever it got its name, the game has been through plenty of ups and downs over the course of its years in the city, with alternating periods of faddishness and decline. Jewish and Italian girls grew up jumping and singing rhymes in the '40s; by the early '80s it was a game played mostly by black and Spanish girls and was the subject of a classic old school hip hop song by Malcolm Maclaren. Recently it's been on the rise again, a grassroots movement in areas without much actual grass, and its advocates hope it will serve as a means to get inner-city kids -- particularly girls, though the teams are co-ed -- involved in sports. There are currently 17 high school teams playing against each other in New York City, including at least 150 students who had never previously been involved in athletics.