Dutch wives et al

Speaking of writing class, one of the earlier assignments was to write from the point of view of an object. Imagine my surprise when one of my students said she wanted to write from the POV of a “Dutch wife.”
This term actually came up in her Thai-English electronic dictionary and upon questioning her about it, I came to understand that she was talking about a dakimakura, or body pillow. I suggested she use the word body pillow, but was intrigued by the use of “Dutch wife.” You see, in my experience with the Japanese language, it basically only means a blow-up sex doll, and I didn’t even know it was used in English. Here it is, though, complete with the meaning of dakimakura listed at the top: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_wife
So I guess this is just part of learning something new every day. Also, it’s hard to get my mind out of the gutter, because THE GUTTER IS ITS HOME.