List of English words of Afrikaans origin
From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Words of Afrikaans origin have entered other languages. British English has absorbed Afrikaans words primarily via British soldiers who served in the Boer Wars. Many more words have entered common usage in South African English due to the parallel nature of the English and Afrikaner cultures in South Africa. Afrikaans words have unusual spelling patterns.
Contents
Internationally common
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- Afrikaans (literally "african", adj.)
- apartheid (literally "separate-ness")
- bergwind (warm dry wind blowing from the plateau to the coast)
- biltong (literally "rump tongue/strip")
- Boer (literally "farmer")
- boerewors (literally "farmer's sausage")
- ja (literally "yes")
- kloof (literally "cleft", a steep-sided valley)
- kraal (African village within a stockade, from Portuguese curral)
- kommando (originally a mounted infantry unit raised to retrieve stolen livestock)[1][2]
- kop, or koppie (literally "head" or "cup", an African monadnock)
- laager (a collection of vehicles in a circle, meant for protection)
- rand (literally "edge" or "rim")
- rooibos (literally "red bush")
- rondavel (literally "round hovel")
- sjambok (an ox-hide whip)
- spoor (literally "tracks" or "footprints")
- trek (literally "draw",[3] or "haul")
- veld (literally "field" or natural African bush vegetation)[4][5]
Common names
Afrikaans (or Cape Dutch) common names for plants and animals often entered the English vernacular:
- aardvark (literally "earth pig")
- aardwolf (literally "earth wolf")
- boomslang (literally "tree snake")
- blesbok (literally "blaze buck/antelope")
- bontebok (literally "mottled antelope")
- dassie (from Dutch, meaning "badger", see also dassie rat)
- duiker (literally "ducker", or "diver")
- eland (from Dutch, meaning "elk")
- grysbok (literally "grey antelope")
- klipspringer (literally "rock pouncer/jumper")
- korhaan (from Dutch, meaning "black grouse")
- leguan / leguaan (corruption of "likkewaan")[6]
- meerkat (literally "lake cat")
- padloper (literally "path walker")
- platanna (from Dutch "plathander", meaning "flat handed creature")
- rinkhals (literally "ring throat")
- skaapsteker (literally "sheep pricker")
- springbok (literally "jumping antelope")
- white, in "white rhinoceros", possibly from wyd meaning "wide" (describing the animal's mouth) Modern Afrikaans also say "Wit Renoster", meaning White Rhinoceros.
Cape Dutch
There are also several English words derived from Cape Dutch, a forerunner of Afrikaans:
- hartebeest (modern Afrikaans equivalent is hartebees)
- scoff/skoff[7] (as in scoffing food): from Cape Dutch schoff, the word did not find its way into modern Afrikaans
- veldt borrowed again by English in the modern form veld
- wildebeest (modern Afrikaans equivalent is wildebees)
Common in South African English
There are almost innumerable borrowings from Afrikaans in South African English.
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References
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See also
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For a list of words relating to with Afrikaans language origins, see the Afrikaans derivations category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
