vrot, adjective

Forms:
Also frot.
Origin:
Afrikaans, DutchShow more Afrikaans, adaptation of Dutch verrotten to rot.
colloquial
1. figurative
a. Rotten, no good, useless.
1910 C. Meredith Peggy of Cape Town 89Sis, man, don’t be such a vrot thing; look on the bright side of things, and tell your creditors to go to the devil.
c1929 S. Black in S. Gray Three Plays (1984) 95The government is absolutely vrot, rotten...They talk about stopping our morning tea.
1975 Fair Lady 24 Dec. 14There are girls in the school long-jump and swimming teams. ‘Only because the guys are vrot this year’, one of the boys said.
1979 Sunday Times 8 JulyNo, look, things may be a bit vrot here in Joeys so long, but we don’t want to stop living, not yet, anyway.
1988 A. Campbell in Fair Lady 27 Apr. 96He told my father that he had given him a vrot pig.
1989 F.G. Butler Tales from Old Karoo 146That husband of hers..now there was a rotten man. Not bad or wicked. Simply vrot.
1990 J. Naidoo Coolie Location 185Dr Fannemeyer told me, in the presence of six other students, that my lesson was frot. In fact, he didn’t allow me to finish.
1991 P. Slabolepszy Braait Laaities. 16You trying to tell me the man who sold you your vrot watch was a nice man?
1994 A. Levin in Sunday Times 9 Oct. (Mag. Sect.) 8The vrot lefties, those hanging around for the image or the aspirations, quickly downgraded in the grand scheme of things: from lefties to leftovers.
b. Drunk.
1991 G. Murray Informant, Alberton, GautengHe got vrot on too much beer and wine. (Drunk.)
1991 I.E.G. Collett Informant, Pilgrim’s RestVrot, frot: Properly drunk. ‘Those two were absolutely frot last night.’
2. Especially of organic matter: rotting, putrid.
1939 S. Cloete Watch for Dawn 44What are the charges against me? That I broke a stick over Booy’s head. It was a rotten stick, vrot, or it would not have broken.
1969 A. Fugard Boesman & Lena 2Vrot! This piece of world is rotten. Put down your foot and you’re in it up to your knee.
1970 D.A.C. Maclennan In Dawn Wind.Like a lot of vrot oranges with names and numbers stamped on ’em.
1975 S. Roberts Outside Life’s Feast 102Watch it, Horace, you old fool. You’re going to tumble!..Leave that one, Horace, it’s vrot!
1977 Sunday Times 7 Aug. (Mag. Sect.) 3When my son of six was called a ‘rooinek’ by an Afrikaans boy of 14 his mother couldn’t take it when my kid replied ‘Afrikaner vrot banana.’
1980 Daily Dispatch 28 Mar. 13He recalled that Mr Hendrik Schoeman, Minister of Agriculture, had once called him a hyena because he was always allegedly looking for vrot meat.
1985 T. Baron in Frontline Feb. 30Smoked over an open fire it takes a long time for boerewors to go vrot.
1989 Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)I don’t know, perhaps some people like vrot pineapple.
1991 G. De Beer Informant, Port Nolloth, Northern CapeThese bananas are vrot, we can’t eat them.
1994 C.M. Silva Informant, MargateOnly shell of Bldg. wasn’t rotten or ‘frot’ as the workmen said.
3. combination , Pathology
vrot maag, also (formerly) verrot maag /- mɑːx/ [Afrikaans, maag stomach, crop] , in ostriches: an inflamation of the stomach, caused by a worm.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 535Verrot maag,..A disease affecting ostriches — an inflamed condition of the stomach with a secretion of a jelly-like mucus due to the presence of a Palisade worm.
1976 S. Lynne Beloved VikingThe men were discussing the merits of certain medicine for vrotmaag. Philippa had just been reading about this scourge amongst ostrich chicks, so she listened with interest.
Rotten, no good, useless.
Drunk.
rotting, putrid.
an inflamation of the stomach, caused by a worm.
Derivatives:
So vrot  intransitive verb, to rot.
1890 J.F. Sewell Private Diary (1983) 118Kitty began to vituperate & wished the boat would vrot & she would take her girl away from me etc. etc.
1994 J. McNaught Informant, Fransch Hoek, Western CapeThe plums aren’t worth anything. It’d be better just to let them vrot on the trees.
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