Pennsylvania Dutch

American  

noun

1. the descendants of 17th- and 18th-century settlers in Pennsylvania from southwest Germany and Switzerland.

2. Also called Pennsylvania German.  a dialect of High German with an admixture of English spoken mainly in eastern Pennsylvania, developed from the language of these settlers. PaD, PaG

3. the folk style of applied and decorative art developed by the Pennsylvania Dutch.

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Pennsylvania Dutch British  

noun

1. Also called: Pennsylvania German.  a dialect of German spoken in E Pennsylvania

2. (functioning as plural) a group of German-speaking people in E Pennsylvania, descended from 18th-century settlers from SW Germany and Switzerland

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Pennsylvania Dutch Cultural  

1. The German and Swiss settlers of Pennsylvania in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their descendants. “Dutch” is a version of the German Deutsch, meaning “German.” The Pennsylvania Dutch are known for their tidy farms and their distinctive crafts and customs. A considerable number of them belong to strict religious denominations, such as the Amish.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Pennsylvania-Dutch
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of Pennsylvania Dutch

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

As the German-speaking Pennsylvania Dutch settled in America, the tradition moved stateside with a groundhog replacing the badger.

From BBC • Feb. 2, 2025

It’s also known as a woodchuck, a whistle pig — or in the parlance of Pennsylvania Dutch, a language with German roots, a “grundsau.”

From Seattle Times • Jan. 30, 2024

The superstition comes from Pennsylvania Dutch culture, which makes sense given that the groundhog's range is largely confined to eastern U.S. states like Pennsylvania as well as Canada.

From Salon • Feb. 2, 2023

Instead, the artist visited Midwestern flea markets, where she bought plates decorated with picturesque images of the United States and its onetime imperial possessions: Florida beaches, Abraham Lincoln, Pennsylvania Dutch country, Manila Bay.

From Washington Post • Sep. 29, 2022

She had a Pennsylvania Dutch accent peppered with German expressions that he didn’t understand and, typically, laughed at.

From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers