Asiatic, noun and & adjective

Origin:
EnglishShow more Special uses of general English.
offensive, historical
A. noun Asian noun.
1882 C. Du Val With Show through Sn Afr. I. 214The introduction of Indian labour is much to be regretted, as the Asiatic is of a repellent and uncongenial character.
1885 Law 3 in Stat. Law of Tvl 1839–1910 (1910) I. 135Relating to Coolies, Arabs, and other Asiatics...This law shall apply to the persons belonging to one of the native races of Asia, including the so-called Coolies, Arabs, Malays, and Mohamedan subjects of the Turkish Empire.
c1936 S. & E. Afr. Yr Bk & Guide 240In May, 1932, the Union Government passed the Transvaal Asiatic Land Tenure Act which forbids future ownership of land by Asiatics, and occupation of proclaimed land, in the Transvaal, except where the minister may authorise.
1941 Bantu World 15 Feb. 9Benoni Magistrate’s court on January 31 was crowded to the doors with Europeans, Asiatics, Coloureds and Bantu.
1942 Off. Yr Bk of Union No. 22, 1941 (Union Office of Census & Statistics) 984Asiatics — Natives of Asia and their descendants; mainly Indians.
1948 Act 47 in Stat. of Union 390Asiatic Laws Amendment Act...‘Asiatic’ means any member of a race or tribe whose national home is in Asia, other than a Turk, or a member of the Jewish or the Syrian race or a person belonging to the race or class known as the Cape Malays.
1948 Press Digest No.5, 35Our ancestors gave their blood for South Africa, and why must we, their descendants, allow Asiatics to conquer our land.
1952 Drum Mar. 27We Chinese are just Asiatics, and are not welcome, according to law, either in European or non-European areas.
1956 Off. Yr Bk of Union No. 28, 1954–55 679The amended racial definitions are as follows:..Asiatics — natives of Asia and their descendants, mainly Indians and Pakistani, with a few thousand Chinese.
1956 E. Hellmann in M. Rogers Black Sash 38We must find a way in which all the different peoples of South Africa — Europeans, Coloureds, Asiatics and Africans — can co-exist.
1961 T. Matshikiza Choc. for my Wife 68The advertisements offer: ‘Europeans only.’ ‘Asiatics Welcome.’
1970 E. Prov. Herald 4 Sept.Asiatics — the White man’s term for the 600 000 Indians (and a few other Asians) who are the majority ‘minority’ in Durban and Natal Province.
1972 Drum 8 Sept. 53Away, we say, with the pot-pourri of names such as Native, Coloured, Asiatic etc., — all under the negative sign of Non-White — from here on we want to be known as Blacks.
1972 Sunday Times 15 Oct. (Mag. Sect.) 4Apart from being a semantic oddity, the word Asiatic was offensive to Indians.
B. adjective Asian adjective
1897 E. Prov. Herald 2 Apr.It is understood that the Asiatic Law is to be enforced. All Coolie traders, being Indians, will be given three months to dispose of their stocks.
1908 Act 35 in Stat. of Tvl 356‘Coloured person’ shall mean any African or Asiatic native or any other person who is manifestly a coloured person.
1912 Indian Opinion 21 Sept. 316Mr Smith asked what had been done in respect of the Council’s resolution some time ago concerning Asiatic trading.
1941 C.W. De Kiewiet Hist. of S. Afr. p.vI have devoted relatively little space to the Cape coloured people or to the Asiatic population.
1952 Drum Nov. 11It is ‘alleged’ that the Council has organised Tsotsis to commit atrocities during strikes arranged by the A.N.C. — like the burning down of Asiatic shops in Newclare.
1955 E. de S. Brummer in Pol. Science Quarterly Sept. 374No Coloured or Asiatic family may live in a white or African neighbourhood.
1960 J.J.L. Sisson S. Afr. Judicial Dict. 69A woman, born in India of a Cape Malay mother and an Asiatic father, and who lived as one of the Cape Malay community of Johannesburg, held to be a person ‘belonging to the class known as Cape Malays’.
1976 Leader 5 Mar. 4Runjeeth, an Asiatic male adult, whose further names and occupation are to the Plaintiff unknown, formerly residing at Umkomaas, Natal.
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Asian, nounn. & adjectiveadj.Askari, nounn.
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