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.
1987 Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)Please, sisi, have you got a checkers for my peaches?
1988 Weekend Argus 19 Mar.Next to him was a vase of colourful flowers mostly made from ‘checkas’ — yellow plastic shopping bags.
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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