Brunch Query: What Does It Really Mean To 'Go Dutch'?

早午餐问题:“各付各的”到底是什么意思?

You're at brunch with your friends on Sunday morning and after stuffing yourself with pancakes, your server comes up to you and says, "Is this going to be on one check or — "

周日早上，你和朋友们一起吃早午餐，吃完煎饼后，服务员过来问你:“这是一次付账还是—”

"Separate!" you all proclaim.

“分开！”你们都声称。

And why would you? It's pretty customary to pay for your own meal, or to go Dutch.

你为什么要这么做?付自己的餐费，或者各付各的都是很常见的。

But it wasn't always the norm to split the check when going out with friends. In fact, in early English society, it was seen as selfish to invite someone out to eat and not pay for their meal.

但是，和朋友出去吃饭时，平分账单并不总是常见的。事实上，在早期的英国社会，邀请别人出去吃饭而不付钱被认为是自私的。

Steven Pincus, a historian from the University of Chicago who focuses on early modern Europe, explains that after the English Civil War ended in 1651, the English were desperate to get life back to normal. This meant following certain codes of conduct that displayed class hierarchies and good Christian behavior.

芝加哥大学历史学家史蒂文平卡斯主要研究早期现代欧洲，他解释说，1651年英国内战结束后，英国人迫切希望恢复正常的生活。这意味着遵循了一定的显示阶级层次和良好的基督教行为的行为准则。

"It was really important in this world to demonstrate your gentility, or gentlemanliness, by hospitality," Pincus says. By not being generous, you were undermining both the crown and God.

平卡斯说:“在这个世界上，通过热情好客来展现你的绅士风度是非常重要的。”你如果不慷慨，就是在诋毁王权和上帝。

The origins of the phrase "going Dutch" are a little complicated, but Pincus and Katherine Martin, a specialist in historical and contemporary lexicography with the Oxford University Press, helped us track the complex history of this idiom.

短语“各付各的”的起源有点复杂，但是平卡斯和牛津大学出版社历史和当代词典编纂专家凯瑟琳·马丁帮助我们追溯了这个成语的复杂历史。

First, we have to take it back all the way to the 1600s. During the Anglo-Dutch Wars, there were multiple conflicts between the English and the Dutch over trade and naval power.

首先，我们要把它带回17世纪。英荷战争期间，英荷两国在贸易和海军实力上发生了多次冲突。

That led to a rise in negative idioms from the English regarding their enemy, the Dutch: phrases like "Dutch courage," the false courage brought on by alcoholic binges; or "Dutch reckoning," which is a ridiculously high bill on which you've likely been scammed.

这导致英国人对他们的敌人荷兰人的负面成语增加:像“荷兰人的勇气”这样的短语，意思是由酗酒带来的虚假勇气;或者“荷兰人的清算”，这是一个高得离谱的账单，高到你可能被骗了。

Pincus explains that this was because the English saw the Dutch not only as a trading enemy, but also as a people with questionable morals. According to Pincus, the English "claimed that the Dutch had been completely corrupted by their commitment to capitalism."

平卡斯解释说，这是因为英国人不仅把荷兰人视为贸易敌人，还把荷兰人视为道德有问题的民族。根据平卡斯的说法，英国人“声称荷兰人完全被他们对资本主义的承诺所腐化。”

After the wars were over, the English were desperate to reestablish order in their society. The monarchy had been restored, and it was time to return to normal. But as England became more and more urban, with influences from different parts of Europe, norms naturally began to change in some places.

战争结束后，英国人急于重建社会秩序。君主制已经恢复，是时候恢复正常了。但随着英国变得越来越城市化，受欧洲不同地区的影响，一些地方的规范自然开始发生变化。

Occasionally, these phrases have a tenuous connection to the culture they're referencing. But more often than not, they say more about the cultures using them than the ones they're directed at. It's a way of saying who we are and who we most certainly are not.

有时候，这些短语与它们所指代的文化之间有着微妙的联系。但更常见的情况是，他们更多地谈论使用的文化，而不是他们所针对的文化。这是一种表达我们是谁和我们肯定不是谁的方式。

Of course, as norms change, so does our sense of self. After all, who wants to pay for their friends' meals all the time?

当然，随着规范的改变，我们的自我意识也在改变。毕竟，谁愿意一直为朋友的餐费买单呢?

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