checkers, noun
- Forms:
- Also checkas.
- Plurals:
- unchanged.
- Origin:
- From Checkers, the proprietory name of a national supermarket chain.
In urban (especially township) English: any plastic supermarket packet with handles.
1982 A. Jacot-Guillarmod Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)A checkers. A plastic bag, preferably with handles. Such a bag may have OK writ large, but is still a ‘checkers’...Word commonly used by non-whites throughout South Africa.
1990 Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)Ma’am can I have a nice checkers please?
any plastic supermarket packet with handles.
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