Spot the Frippet: holland.

Holland. It gets all over the place.

There's the country also known as The Netherlands, a bit of Lincolnshire, and the place now called Jayapura in Indonesia used to be called Hollandia. There are Hollands in Canada, France, the USA and Singapore, too.


This is Holland House in London

One of the French Hollandes, Francois, is also co-prince of Andorra, which makes him a mind-boggling example of a democratically-elected prince who's elected by the people of another country. (The other co-prince, as a matter of interest, is the Bishop of Urgell. This makes my brain hurt.)

Anyway.

Apart from in all these Hollands in various countries, Holland is also to be found somewhere where there is no country at all, because Holland is a class of military submarines, often to be found, naturally, in the wilder parts of the sea. They were designed by someone called Holland.

You know, I'm beginning to feel slightly twitchy. As if I'm being invaded or something. As if someone is watching me:


That's Tom Holland, best known at the moment for being in Billy Elliot.

Hollands is also a type of gin, and hollandaise sauce, given the slightest encouragement, will spread itself all over fish.

Alarmingly, there will almost certainly be holland very very near you. Possibly within a hair's breath of your bottom.

Yes, holland is a coarse linen cloth that's used for covering furniture.

There. I told you. Holland. Gets everywhere.

Creepy, or what?

Spot the frippet: holland. Everything seems to be named after the country, or after someone named after the country. But where the name for the country itself came from I can't find anyone to tell me.