Words of Afrikaans origin have entered other languages.

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...

has absorbed Afrikaans words primarily via

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

soldiers who served in the

Boer Wars The military history of South Africa chronicles a vast time period and complex events from the dawn of history until the present time. It covers civil wars and wars of aggression and of self-defence both within South Africa and against it. It in ...

. Many more words have entered common usage in South African English due to the parallel nature of the English and Afrikaner

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...

s in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. Afrikaans words have unusual spelling patterns. Most of these words describe the African flora, fauna or landscape.

Internationally common

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

(noun: name of language, from "african") derivative: Afrikaner (person who speaks Afrikaans as their native tongue), plural: Afrikaners *

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

(literally "apart-ness"): also the name of a period of segregation in the country during 1948–1994 * bergwind (warm dry wind blowing from the plateau to the coast) *

biltong Biltong is a form of dried, cured meat that originated in Southern African countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia). Various types of meat are used to produce it, ranging from beef to game meats such as ...

(literally "rump tongue/strip"): dried cured red-meat, similar to

Jerky Jerky is lean trimmed meat cut into strips and dried (dehydrated) to prevent spoilage. Normally, this drying includes the addition of salt to prevent bacteria growth before the meat has finished the dehydrating process. The word "jerky" derive ...

. Has a

boerewors Boerewors, () is a type of sausage which originated in South Africa. It is an important part of South African, Zimbabwean, Botswana and Namibian cuisine and is popular across Southern Africa. The name is derived from the Afrikaans words ("far ...

equivalent known as

Droëwors ''Droëwors'' (; Afrikaans literally "dry sausage") is a Southern African snack food, based on the traditional, coriander-seed spiced boerewors sausage. It is usually made as a ''dunwors'' (Afrikaans for "thin sausage") rather than ''dikwors'' ...

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this are ...

(literally "farmer"): due to the large number of Afrikaans-speaking farmers, the term is exclusively used among Afrikaners for displaying national pride. *

(literally "farmer's sausage"): a juicy mixed-spice and mixed-meat sausage *

Highveld The Highveld (Afrikaans: ''Hoëveld'', where ''veld'' means "field") is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above roughly 1500 m, but below 2100 m, thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south-east of ...

: a raised plateau stretching from the eastern side of the Free State (province) up north including the provinces of

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

and

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

. Due to its location in Gauteng, the city of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

is the highest urban settlement by elevation * ja (literally "yes") * kraal (African village within a stockade, from Portuguese ''curral'') *

kommando A ''Kommando'' (, "unit" or "command") is a general term for special police and military forces in German, Dutch, and Afrikaans speaking nations. It was also the term in the World War II era ''Luftwaffe'' for special units used to test new air ...

(originally a

mounted infantry Mounted infantry were infantry who rode horses instead of marching. The original dragoons were essentially mounted infantry. According to the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', "Mounted rifles are half cavalry, mounted infantry merely specially m ...

unit raised to retrieve stolen livestock) * kop, or koppie (literally "head" or "cup", an African monadnock): Koppie can also refer to a small hill. *

laager A wagon fort, wagon fortress, or corral, often referred to as circling the wagons, is a temporary fortification made of wagons arranged into a rectangle, circle, or other shape and possibly joined with each other to produce an improvised militar ...

(a collection of vehicles in a circle, meant for protection) * lapa A

thatched roof Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

structure supported by wooden poles. Lapas are commonly used as semi-open entertainment areas. *

rand The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finan ...

(literally "edge", "rim" or "ridge"): also the name of the South African currency, named after the

Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...

(White waters' ridge) *

rooibos Rooibos ( ; , meaning "red bush"), or ''Aspalathus linearis'', is a broom-like member of the plant family Fabaceae that grows in South Africa's fynbos biome. The leaves are used to make a herbal tea that is called rooibos (especially in S ...

(literally "red bush"): a bush, endemic to South Africa, used to make a herbal tea also called rooibos *

rondavel Rondavel is a style of African hut known in literature as ''cone on cylinder'' or ''cone on drum.'' The word comes from the Afrikaans ''rondawel''. Description The rondavel is usually round or oval in shape and is traditionally made with mate ...

A round hut *

sjambok The sjambok () or litupa is a heavy leather whip. It is traditionally made from an adult hippopotamus or rhinoceros hide, but is also commonly made out of plastic. A strip of the animal's hide is cut and carved into a strip long, tapering fro ...

(an ox-hide whip): used by the South African Police Service for riot control, formerly used as a disciplinary tool for misbehaving school children * spoor (literally "tracks" or "footprints"): the Afrikaans "spoorweë" refers specifically to the National Train Route, often indirectly as the train-tracks as well. * trek (literally "draw", or "haul"): Popularized in English by "Die Groot Trek" (The

Great Trek The Great Trek ( af, Die Groot Trek; nl, De Grote Trek) was a Northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyon ...

) *

veld Veld ( or ), also spelled veldt, is a type of wide open rural landscape in :Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub, especially in the countries of South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Bot ...

(literally "field" or natural African bush vegetation) * ystervarkies (literally "iron piglets"; translates as porcupine/hedgehog), the South African name for Lamingtons

Common names

Afrikaans (or

Cape Dutch Cape Dutch, also commonly known as Cape Afrikaners, were a historic socioeconomic class of Afrikaners who lived in the Western Cape during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The terms have been evoked to describe an affluent, apolitical se ...

) common names for plants and animals often entered the English vernacular: *

aardvark The aardvark ( ; ''Orycteropus afer'') is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa. It is the only living species of the order Tubulidentata, although other prehistoric species and genera of Tubulidentata are known. Unlik ...

(literally "earth pig"): Also known as an Anteater *

aardwolf The aardwolf (''Proteles cristata'') is an insectivorous species of hyena, native to East and Southern Africa. Its name means "earth-wolf" in Afrikaans and Dutch. It is also called maanhaar-jackal (Afrikaans for " mane-jackal"), termite-eat ...

(literally "earth wolf") * boomslang (literally "tree snake"): A highly venomous bright green tree snake * blesbok (literally "bald buck") *

bontebok The bontebok (''Damaliscus pygargus'') is an antelope found in South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia. ''D. pygargus'' has two subspecies; the nominate subspecies (''D. p. pygargus''), occurring naturally in the Fynbos and Renosterveld areas of ...

(literally "mottled buck") * dassie (from Dutch, English translation Hyrax; see also dassie rat) * duiker (literally "diver") * eland (from Dutch, meaning " elk"): The largest known species of antelope * grysbok (literally "grey buck") *

klipspringer The klipspringer (; ''Oreotragus oreotragus'') is a small antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The sole member of its genus and subfamily/tribe, the klipspringer was first described by German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zim ...

(literally "rock jumper") * korhaan (from Dutch, meaning "black grouse") * leguan / leguaan (corruption of "likkewaan") * meerkat (literally "lake cat") *

padloper ''Homopus'' is a genus of tiny tortoises in the family Testudinidae, endemic to southern Africa. Three species have been moved to the genus Chersobius. Naming As a group, these closely related species are commonly known in Europe and Africa a ...

(literally "path walker") * platanna (from Dutch "plathander", meaning "flat handed creature") *

rinkhals The rinkhals (; ''Hemachatus haemachatus''), also known as the ringhals or ring-necked spitting cobra, is a species of venomous snake in the family Elapidae. The species is found in parts of southern Africa. It is not a true cobra in that it do ...

(literally "ring throat"): also known as the ring-necked spitting cobra *

springbok The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm ...

(literally "jumping buck"): The National Animal of South Africa *white, in "

white rhinoceros The white rhinoceros, white rhino or square-lipped rhinoceros (''Ceratotherium simum'') is the largest extant species of rhinoceros. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The white rhinoceros consists ...

", 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 The hartebeest (; ''Alcelaphus buselaphus''), also known as kongoni or kaama, is an African antelope. It is the only member of the genus ''Alcelaphus''. Eight subspecies have been described, including two sometimes considered to be independ ...

(modern Afrikaans equivalent is ''hartebees'') *scoff/skoff (as in scoffing food): from

''schoff'', the word did not find its way into modern Afrikaans * veldt borrowed again by English in the modern form

wildebeest Wildebeest ( , , ), also called gnu ( or ), are antelopes of the genus ''Connochaetes'' and native to Eastern and Southern Africa. They belong to the family Bovidae, which includes true antelopes, cattle, goats, sheep, and other even-to ...

(modern Afrikaans equivalent is ''wildebees'')

Common in South African English

There are almost innumerable borrowings from Afrikaans in South African English.

References

External links

Low Germanic loanwords in modern English
{{DEFAULTSORT:English words of Afrikaans origin Afrikaans