‖Engels, adjective and noun
/ˈeŋ(ə)ls/
- Forms:
- Formerly also Engelsch.
- Origin:
- Afrikaans, DutchShow more Afrikaans, earlier Dutch Engelsch.
- Note:
- Usually used ironically, or in Dutch or Afrikaans phrases.
A. adjective Also (attributive) Engelsche, Engelse.
1. From or of England or Britain; of the English or British.
1822 W.J. Burchell Trav. I. 184On my way back to the village, I met a Hottentot, who, asking me if I was not de engelsche heer (the English gentleman) presented a letter from my friend Poleman.
1837 ‘N. Polson’ Subaltern’s Sick Leave 156The Boers in the provinces..had..an inveterate prejudice against the ‘Engelsch vark’ (English pig!) as they styled the Saxon and Merino sheep.
1862 Lady Duff-Gordon in F. Galton Vacation Tourists (1864) III. 136One may board in a Dutch farm-house very cheaply, and..they will drive you about..and tend your horses for nothing, if you are friendly, and don’t treat them with Engelsche hoog-moedigheid.
1912 F. Bancroft Veldt Dwellers 31You’ve taken the oath of allegiance to Kruger, and though your blood is Engelsch — more’s the pity — you can’t go against that oath without being a traitor.
2. English adjective sense 2.
1985 Vula Oct. 10The Afrikaaners are tired of taking a backseat to pretentious Engelse intellect né.
1990 Sunday Times 1 Apr. 19Afrikaans drama has..an unerring sense of place and identity...None of the characters in..the new six-part series..on TV1..could possibly be Engels.
3. Special collocations
Engelse Kerk /-ˈkɛrk/ [Afrikaans, kerk church], the ‘Anglican’ Church (Church of the Province of Southern Africa, see CPSA noun1); any English-language church; cf. English adjective sense 1;
1984 B. Johnson-Barker in Wynboer June 72Albert Hockley had no right..to be going to the Pastorie, because he belonged to the Engelse kerk, as he..delighted in saying when Dominee Kuys was rounding up the others.
1989 Style Feb. 36I speak as one whose investigations..have resulted in some minor skirmishes harking back to that war the English call the Boer War and the Afrikaners call the Engelse Oorlog.
1963 J. Sinclair in Black Sash Dec. 5They hate all those in opposition groups; they hate the Africans, the Indians and the Coloureds; they hate the ‘Engelse pers’.
1971 Sunday Times 27 June 16He wants nothing to do with the ‘Engelse Pers’. When some Parliamentary correspondents of English-language newspapers invited him to lunch recently, he refused.
1979 Daily Dispatch 18 Apr. 3You’ve got to pick up praise where you can find it, even if it’s in the Engelse pers.
1983 Frontline Feb. 40A well known critic of the press..makes a number of observations which the Engelse Pers, in particular, is apt to consider hostile.
1984 J. Scott in Cape Times 31 Mar. 11Would you believe..Dr. Treurnicht, Dr. Mulder and old Oomie Tom Langley and all entertaining the dreaded Engelse pers to champagne and scrambled eggs?
1987 H. Prendini in Style Feb. 30As a representative of the diabolical Engelse Pers..shouldn’t I be regarded with a little suspicion?
B. noun , plural Engelse /-ə/, occasionally Engelses /-əs/.
1. Usually in the plural : Persons of English or British origin. See also Engelsman sense 1.
1913 D. Fairbridge Piet of Italy 149Koos..scouted the idea of a mishap. ‘Him eat plenty aprikose, then him walk plenty. All Englese [sic] like that.’
1915 J.K. O’Connor Afrikander Rebellion 31The acquisition of the Diamond Fields by Britain is another episode which in the hands of a ‘patriotic’ teacher lends itself to the exposure of the ‘underhand methods’ adopted by that ‘lagere natie, de Engelse’.
1944 ‘Twede in Bevel’ Piet Kolonel 36The general attitude of the Afrikaner was one of good humoured surprise tinged with genuine affection for the idiosyncracies of the Engelse.
1992 G. Etherington in Weekend Post 9 May (Leisure) 4The Engelse were encamped on a koppie overlooking Van Puttensvlei.
2.
a. In the plural : English noun sense a. See also Engelsman sense 2, mak Engelse (mak sense 2).
1973 Cape Times 2 June 8His thinking rests on the historic fear of Afrikaner Nationalism that the Engelse will make common cause with Black political or economic power to ‘plough the Afrikaner under’.
1976 Daily Dispatch 6 Feb. 14The Engelse are only fully tolerable if they support the National Party, and only on the clear understanding that they can never be admitted to the innermost circle of the ruling class of Broeders.
1981 A. Paton in Optima Vol.30 No.2, 92The descendants of the 1820 settlers of the Eastern Cape Province and of the 1850 settlers of Natal all became known as ‘die Engelse’.
1984 Frontline Mar. 46Is there no end to the arrogance of certain Engelses? They’re living in South Africa, they seem to forget, which is a multi-lingual country.
1986 Style Dec. 41The only good bantus, commies, liberals and Engelse were dead ones...The regte boere ruled with an iron fist.
1988 J. Scott in E. Prov. Herald 5 Mar. 6We will be faced with what the Engelse call Hodgson’s Choice, or something like that.
b. comb.
1972 Evening Post 27 May 11 (letter)One hears a lot about ‘boerehaat’, but what about ‘Engelsehaat’.
1980 Sunday Times 12 Oct. 4The English daily newspaper, the Windhoek Advertiser, lashed back, asking..‘Does he perhaps think that the “Engelsman” is a hard-assed punk who has no feelings?..The Joernaal is fanning the flames of bitterness and hate, “Engelsehaat”.’
1981 Sunday Times 25 Jan. (Mag. Sect.) 4We English-speaking South Africans have been accused of boerehaat at election times, but ‘The Settlers’ is a vicious piece of ‘Engelse haat’.
3.
a. The English language.
1987 P. Schirmer in Personality 7 Mar. 81He’ll speak Engels one day when he goes to school, he assures me.
1990 Cue 30 June 3A ware Suid-Afrikaanse band, their liedjies are in both Engels and Afrikaans. They even lapse into gibberish..at times.
b. comb.
Engels-sprekende /-ˈspriəkəndə/ [Afrikaans, sprekende speaker], an English-speaking person (see Engelsman sense 2); as adjective [Afrikaans, sprekende speaking], English-speaking (see English adjective sense 2 b).
1974 Daily Dispatch 21 Oct. 8Die Engels-sprekende bloedsappe show that conservatism is alive and well and living in the official Opposition.
1977 The 1820 Vol.50 No.12, 20It was the British who brought rowing to South Africa and today Afrikaners and Engel-sprekenders [sic] row in schools, universities and clubs all over the country.
1988 J. Raphaely in Femina May 152He thought that it was all right ‘as long as only the Engels-sprekendes saw it’.
From or of England or Britain; of the English or British.
Englishadjective2.
Persons of English or British origin.
Englishnouna.
The English language.
Copyright © 2019 Dictionary Unit for South African English.
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