Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
List of English words of Afrikaans origin
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.
Internationally Common
- aardvark
- aardwolf
- apartheid
- commando
- commandeer (verb)
- scoff (as in scoffing food)
- slim
- spoor
- springbok
- trek
- wildebeest
- veld (or veldt)
There are almost innumerable borrowings from Afrikaans in South African English, including braai (a shortening of braaivleis, a barbecue), dorp (a small town), kopje (a hillock), kraal (a corruption of the Portuguese curral, an enclosure for cattle), laager (a defensive circle of wagons) and lekker (a slang word for 'nice' or 'good').
Cyberbraai has a more complete list of these words, as well as several words from various African languages, such as Zulu.
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details