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The Native Tourist
reformed/biblical observations on Christianity and culture

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Landscape Origins
According to one source, the two most used words in English taken from the Dutch language are aparteid and landscape. Here is the etymology of landscape from American Heritage Dictionary via Answers.com:

[Dutch landschap, from Middle Dutch landscap, region : land, land + -scap, state, condition (collective suff.).]

It would be interesting to probe more the meaning of "scap" in Dutch.

Here is an additonal note on the origin of "landscape" fom Answers.com:

WORD HISTORY Landscape, first recorded in 1598, was borrowed as a painters' term from Dutch during the 16th century, when Dutch artists were pioneering the landscape genre. The Dutch word landschap had earlier meant simply “region, tract of land” but had acquired the artistic sense, which it brought over into English, of “a picture depicting scenery on land.” Interestingly, 34 years pass after the first recorded use of landscape in English before the word is used of a view or vista of natural scenery. This delay suggests that people were first introduced to landscapes in paintings and then saw landscapes in real life.