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Holland is a region in the western part of the Netherlands. A maritime and economic power in the 17th century, Holland today consists of the Dutch provinces of North Holland and South Holland.
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Holland is a region in the western part of the Netherlands. A maritime and economic power in the 17th century, Holland today consists of the Dutch provinces of North Holland and South Holland.
Etymology
The name Holland first appeared in sources in 866 for the region around Haarlem, and by 1064 was being used for the name of the entire county. By this time, the inhabitants of Holland were referring to themselves as "Hollanders". Holland is derived from the Middle Dutch term holtland ("wooded land"). This spelling variation remained in use until around the 14th century, at which time the name stabilised as Holland (alternative spellings at the time were Hollant and Hollandt). Popular, but incorrect, etymology holds that Holland is derived from hol land ("hollow land") and was inspired by the low-lying geography of Holland.
Usage
The proper name of the area in both Dutch and English is "Holland". "Holland" is a part of the Netherlands. "Holland" is informally and quite incorrectly used in English and other languages, including sometimes the Dutch language itself, to mean the whole of the modern country of the Netherlands (this example of pars pro toto or synecdoche is similar to the tendency to refer to the United Kingdom as "England").
The people of Holland are referred to as "Hollanders" in both Dutch and English. Today this refers specifically to people from the current provinces of North Holland and South Holland. Strictly speaking, the term "Hollanders" does not refer to people from the other provinces in the Netherlands, but colloquially "Hollanders" is sometimes mistakenly used in this wider sense.
When referring to the Netherlands as a whole, the adjective is "Dutch". "Dutch" is not used as an adjective for "Holland" in a modern context because "Dutch" refers to all of the Netherlands, not just Holland. However, there is a good deal of confusion about this. In actual practice, the adjective "Dutch" is often (but somewhat inaccurately) used in the specific context of Holland.
In Dutch, the Dutch word "Hollands" is the adjectival form for "Holland", but in English there is no commonly used adjective for "Holland". "Hollands" is ordinarily expressed in English in two ways:
- a possessive construction (e.g. "Holland's economic power"); or
- an "of Holland" or "from Holland" construction (e.g. "the Maid of Holland"; "a girl from Holland").
The following usages apply in certain limited situations but do not ordinarily serve as the English equivalent of the commonly used Dutch adjective "Hollands".
- Occasionally, the noun "Holland" is used in apposition (e.g. "the Holland Society").
- The adjective "Hollandic" is occasionally used by some historians and other academic writers as an adjective for Holland. Historians who use the word tend to reserve it to pre-Napoleonic Holland. Hollandic is also the name linguists give to the dialect spoken in Holland.
