Sooterkin Dutch Dark Soo Tuhr Kin Noun Sweetheart Mistress Afterbirth

sooterkin /SOO-tuhr-kin/

noun

1. A sweetheart or mistress.

2. An afterbirth formerly believed to be gotten by Dutch women by warming themselves on stoves.

3. Something imperfect or unsuccessful.

[Apparently from Dutch zoet (sweet). Earliest documented use: 1530.]

“sooterkin, my twin

how oft I see you in dark corners of this room

so like our early home, a hot dark womb”

Alison Calder; Wolf Tree; Coteau Books; 2007.

“Dr. Maubray even claimed that he had seen and delivered a sooterkin when he was traveling on a ferry from Harlingen to Amsterdam and a woman fell into labor on board.” - Jan Bondeson; A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities; W.W. Norton; 1999.