This word for a spear or javelin entered European languages via Spanish (azagaya) from Arabic and Berber in the late Middle Ages. Since the foundation of the Cape colony in the mid-seventeenth century, it was used to refer to the spears of the Khoikhoi, and later also for those of other indigenous people in southern Africa.
baas
In seventeenth-century Dutch this was used both in the sense of ‘head’ (e.g. ‘head carpenter’) and ‘master’. In South Africa the second meaning developed further, and thus baas came to be a synonym for meester (‘master’). It was the form that slaves (and Khoikhoi) would use to address male Europeans.
bandiet, bandieten
Literally ‘bandits’. These were convicts sentenced by the VOC courts to hard labour. The term was used for any such person, irrespective of his or her status as a slave or free person.
boekhouder
The administrative or civil sector of the VOC was divided into six categories of rank, with the governor-general at the head of the first one. Most of the titles used for these ranks were derived from the merchant origins of the VOC, but in practice a rank did not equate with a person’s function. A boekhouder (literally ‘bookkeeper’) was a rank in the fifth category, just above that of ‘assistant’, and below that of an onderkoopman (‘junior merchant’).
caffer, caffers
Term for the slaves and bandieten used as assistants of the executioner and who also acted as the ‘police force’ of the town under the leadership of the geweldiger. Both the function and word derived from Batavia.
crimineelen eijsch ende conclusie
Literally ‘criminal demand and conclusion.’ The document drawn up by the prosecutor based on the evidence he collected and delivered in court against an accused. The conclusie is the final part of the document in which the prosecutor suggested an appropriate punishment for the crime.
eijsch
Literally ‘claim’ or ‘demand.’ This is strictly speaking the eijsch ende conclusie without the final part about sentencing, but the term is often used as a shorthand for the whole document.
eijscher
Literally ‘claimant’ or ‘petitioner.’ The prosecutor who drew up and delivered the crimineelen eijsch ende conclusie, usually either the fiscal or a landdrost (magistrate).
gaanderij
Usually a family room behind the public front rooms of a house where families ate together or where domestic chores were performed. In some earlier Cape houses it referred to a passageway or linking area between the front room and the kitchen area.
galderij
Not a ‘gallery,’ but usually a family room behind the public front rooms of a house where families ate together or where domestic chores were performed. In some earlier Cape houses it referred to a passageway or linking area between the front room and the kitchen area.
geweldiger
An old Dutch term for ‘provost.’ At the Cape this was the title of the person at the head of the caffers, the people who in effect acted as the local ‘police force.’
heemraad, heemraden
The origin of this word is uncertain, but is connected to the Dutch words heem (‘homestead’) and raad (‘councillor’). This was the title of a free burgher who served on the Collegie van Heemraden in the rural districts of the Cape, usually for a term of two years.
jongen, jongens
Literally ‘boy.’ In Dutch it was common to use this word also to refer to male servants, irrespective of age. At the Cape, however, this usage was extended to slaves and then became exclusive, so that jongen (also in the deflected form jong) came to mean ‘male slave’, such that Afrikaans lost the use of the word to mean ‘boy’ and instead uses seun (from Dutch zoon) for both ‘boy’ and ‘son.’ In this primary meaning, the word has become obsolete in modern Afrikaans, except for the archaic terms tuinjong (‘garden boy’) and plaasjong (‘farm boy’), in the sense of male workers of colour.
juffrouw
Strictly speaking this contraction of jonkvrouw was the form of address for a noble lady (as with jonker, the contraction of jonkheer, ‘lord’), but at the Cape it was more generally used by settlers for women with some social status. Moreover, in the eighteenth century this was also the term slaves used to address their female owners, alongside nonje.
kirrij, kirrijs
This is the Cape Khoi word for the walking stick traditional Khoikhoi carried with them and used as weapons. In the course of the eighteenth century, the word was adopted by Dutch-speaking colonists to refer to a walking stick, also where it was used as an instrument of punishment.
knecht, knechten
Literally ‘male servant,’ but because most European knechten at the Cape were used as slave overseers, this original meaning gradually eroded and the word ended up meaning primarily (as in modern Afrikaans), ‘farm foreman.’
koopman
The administrative or civil sector of the VOC was divided into six categories of rank, with the governor-general at the head of the first one. Most of the titles used for these ranks were derived from the merchant origins of the VOC, but in practice a rank did not equate with a person’s function. Koopman, literally meaning ‘merchant,’ was a rank in the third category, senior to onderkoopman (‘junior merchant’), but below an opperkoopman (‘chief merchant’).
kraal, kraals
Both this word and the English ‘corral’ derive from Portuguese curral, meaning an enclosed area for keeping livestock. However, in South Africa a related meaning developed, right from the founding of the Cape colony, namely as a settlement of indigenous people, at first specifically the Khoikhoi but later also other indigenous peoples.
manhafte
This word is related to Dutch manhaftig, ‘manly, manful, valiant.’ It was the title held by officers of the various citizen militias (each district had one). It seems as if it only entered common usage late in the eighteenth century.
meester
Literally ‘master’, this was the Dutch title of someone with a law degree.
meijd, meijden
Literally ‘girl.’ This word developed among the same lines as jongen, the word coming to mean ‘female slave.’ However, its trajectory diverged from that of jongen in that it eventually was used more widely to refer to indigenous women, so that meid still survives in modern Afrikaans as a pejorative term for women of colour. As with jongen, the word was no longer available to refer to European girls, but instead of the difference between girl and daughter disappearing, the diminutive form, meijsje (Afrikaans, meisie), came to be used for ‘girl.’
mud, mudden
A measurement for dry goods, usually wheat or flour, the equivalent of about one hectolitre.
nonje, nonjes
This word entered Dutch from Malay nyonya (which in turn derived from Portuguese dona, ‘lady’) and was in use at the Cape since its foundation. It was used both by settlers to refer to women in general, and by slaves and Khoikhoi as a form of address for female Europeans. It survived in modern Afrikaans in the form of nooi or nôi, ‘young (unmarried) woman’, although it is now somewhat archaic.
onderkoopman
The administrative or civil sector of the VOC was divided into six categories of rank, with the governor-general at the head of the first one. Most of the titles used for these ranks were derived from the merchant origins of the VOC, but in practice a rank did not equate with a person’s function. Onderkoopman, literally ‘vice or deputy merchant’ but usually translated as ‘junior merchant’, was a rank in the fourth category, senior to boekhouder (‘bookkeeper’) but below that of koopman (‘merchant’).
opgaaf
The annual census return, for tax purposes, which enumerated burgher families, knechten, slaves, livestock, and crops sown and harvested. Only the names of the household head and spouse were recorded.
pacht, pachten
Literally ‘lease.’ The VOC at the Cape had a system whereby the right to retail certain profitable goods (mostly alcohol and meat) was sold regularly. A pacht was therefore in effect a monopoly.
pacther, pacthers
A holder of one of the alcohol or meat monopolies.
plakkaat, plakkaten
An ordinance or decree of the Council of Policy read in public places and posted on buildings. The name is derived from the seal, a ‘placaat’, which was impressed on the document containing an ordinance.
regtsrollen
Literally ‘rolls of justice’, the minutes of the proceedings of the Council of Justice.
riem, riemen
A thin strip of leather. It was commonly used at the Cape due to the expense and a shortage of ropes.
schepel, schepels
One mud (one hectolitre) contained four schepels.
sieur, sieurs
The form sieur is derived from sinjeur, but it is uncertain whether the latter came into colonial Dutch from French seigneur or Creole Portuguese sinjoor (both from Latin, senior, ‘older’). The word was commonly used by slaves at the Cape to address European males, but it was also the official title for lower-ranking VOC officials. The word lived on in Afrikaans in the form of seur until the early twentieth century but is now extinct.
sinjeur, sinjeurs
It is uncertain whether sinjeur came into colonial Dutch from French seigneur or Creole Portuguese sinjoor (both from Latin, senior, ‘older’). The word was commonly used by slaves at the Cape to address European males but was also the official title for lower-ranking VOC officials. The word lived on in Afrikaans in the form of seur until the early twentieth century but is now obsolete.
sjambok
This word entered seventeenth-century Dutch via Malay (tjambok) or Javanese (sambok) from Persian (châbuk). It is a whip cut from thick animal skin, usually hippopotamus or rhinoceros, and was already known in the Dutch East Indies as an instrument for punishing slaves. At the Cape it was also used to beat draught animals with.
stuijver, stuijvers
At the Cape and in the Dutch East Indies (where money was devalued due to a shortage of specie), one guilder (gulden) contained 16 stuijvers (as opposed to the usual 20). Two stuijvers made one dubbeltje.
veldcorporaal
Literally ‘field corporal.’ After 1715, male burghers in the rural districts formed a citizen militia of which the landdrost (magistrate) was the commanding officer. The various divisions (commandos) of a district were each headed by a veldcorporaal.
veldwagtmeester
Literally ‘field guarding master,’ this was often shortened to veldwagter (‘field guard’). This person was in effect the representative of the landdrost (magistrate) in the different parts of a district, and had to act on his orders, making arrests, reporting any criminal activities and transgression of plakkaten, and inspecting the bodies of deceased persons.
volk
In seventeenth-century Dutch this was used to refer either to a group of people in the sense of ‘nation,’ or more commonly a group of people acting or working together. It was thus often used as a short-hand term for common labourers. Although the word was used in this latter meaning at the Cape to refer to European labourers, it eventually – due to the racial divide in the labour situation – came to refer to both slaves and Khoikhoi in the sense of manual labourers. This usage lived on in modern Afrikaans plaasvolk, ‘farm labourers.’
voorhuijs
Literally the ‘front house’, this referred to the first area entered from the main door or stoep (porch). In most houses this was a room, although in the later design of some Cape houses it referred to a narrower passage (like a hall or vestibule) flanked by one or more front rooms.