erf, noun

/ɜːf/
Forms:
Formerly also (rare) hearf.
Plurals:
erven, erfs; formerly also (rare) ervin, hervings.
Origin:
DutchShow more Dutch, in same sense, originally ‘inheritance’.
a. A plot of land; cf. stand sense 1 b. Also attributive.
Note:
The word ‘erf’ is used in both urban and rural contexts: although not a unit of measure, it is used only of relatively small plots, up to the size of small-holdings.
1811 J.A. Truter in G.M. Theal Rec. of Cape Col. (1901) VIII. 103The Regulation on the granting of small pieces of ground (Erven) to hold but a small number of cattle.
[1812 A. Plumptre tr. of H. Lichtenstein’s Trav. in Sn Afr. (1928) I. 335Instead of extensive farms, it should be divided into small parcels of land, or erbes.]
1821 C.I. Latrobe Jrnl of Visit 371His industry put him in possession of this erf, a name given to a small lot of ground, not being a complete farm.
1827 G. Thompson Trav. 57At the public sale of the erven, or lots of ground for houses and gardens, there was great competition.
1846 Natal Witness 10 Apr. 1Mr B. will, on the same day, dispose of 100 or 150 feet of Ground of the Erf he is occupying.
1857 T. Shone Diary. 3 JulyHenry was quarrying of stone, he Brought one load to his Ervin in Bathurst.
a1858 J. Goldswain Chron. (1946) I. 50They gave everey one that maid appelaction to them a hearf of ground to buld thear house on and to make a Garding: sum of the hervings were two acers but what was caled Mecanic Hearfs was onley half an acer.
1861 E. Prov. Yr Bk & Annual Register 156The water..is led out of the rivers and streams by furrows over the erven.
1892 W.L. Distant Naturalist in Tvl 95Erven, or plots, that could have been purchased a few years earlier..for £14, and now worth from £200 to £300.
1905 G. Baumann in Baumann & Bright Lost Republic (1940) 244At Winburg, the Resident Magistrate..in Transfer Deeds described the erven as being ‘on or about’ so many feet frontage.
1926 P.W. Laidler Tavern of Ocean 82In 1785 a pottery was organised by P.J. Caude.., who asked the Company for an erf in Table Valley for that purpose.
1934 B.I. Buchanan Pioneer Days 1An erf extended from one main street to the next, and its area was one and a half acres, affording space for garden and orchard.
1950 H.C. Bosman in S. Gray Makapan’s Caves (1987) 141Bekkersdal was proclaimed as a township, and the bush was cleared away and the surveyor measured out the streets and divided up the erfs.
1960 J.J.L. Sisson S. Afr. Judicial Dict. 253According to the ordinary meaning of language erf (or at any rate an erf of a village) is a limited area of land measuring something like 100 feet by 200 feet, or, in the case of large erven, 200 feet by 200 feet.
1971 Daily Dispatch 25 Aug. 1The Fingo village was given in trust to the Fingo people in 1857...Most erven are owned by African ratepayers.
1987 G. Viney Col. Houses 92The erfs of Sidbury village were deductions off Bushy Park.
1990 Grocott’s Mail 5 Apr. 3Both these erven have business rights, but could be used for residential purposes as well.
1992 Sunday Times 20 Sept. 15The configuration of outbuildings which frame the erf are among the finest in the country.
b. With defining word denoting a specific type of erf:
dry erf, an erf with no access to water;
water erf or (obsolete) wet erf, an erf with water rights.
1833 Graham’s Town Jrnl 20 June 3The proclamation which established Graham’s Town provided that the Erven should pay certain Water-Rates; and some of them denominated ‘dry erven’ were to pay it even without receiving water.
1867 Blue Bk for Col. 1866 JJ13The dam will be of considerable benefit to the inhabitants by furnishing the dry erven with a permanent supply of water for domestic purposes.
1977 Family Radio & TV 28 Apr. 47We’ve got what we call dry erven where residents don’t lead off water from the main street furrow, and water erven where they do.
1860 E.R. Murray in J. Murray Young Mrs Murray (1954) 27Water was led from its Spring (or ‘Fountain’) in open furrows across a block of water erven, one of which was the Parsonage grounds.
1871 W.G. Atherstone in A.M.L. Robinson Sel. Articles from Cape Monthly Mag. (1978) 145‘Sannah’s Poorte’, through which a small streamlet languidly trickles, threatening to water some half dozen ‘water erven’ owned by the church, which sows not, reaps not, gardens not.
1949 L.G. Green In Land of Afternoon 17An erf is not a farm, but there are people who draw much of their support from a water-erf.
1958 I. Vaughan Diary 7There are big houses with gardens they are calling them water erfs becos they are the only ones getting watter in a furrow from the big dam at top of the street.
1977 Family Radio & TV 28 Apr. 47For the dry erven we charge 10c a year for all the water they can take out in buckets and for the water erven it’s 20c a year.
1982 Het Suid-Western 29 Dec.Irrigation Water Fees: R18,50 per year per original water erf (100 per cent).
1882 J. Nixon Among Boers 124The town is divided by the spruit into wet and dry ‘erven’, that is to say, the ‘erven’, or blocks of property into which the town is cut up, are irrigated on one side of the spruit, but not on the other. The principal residential properties and gardens are on the wet erven.
c. comb. (objective)
erf-holder, the owner of an erf; occasionally with defining word (see quotation 1914).
1851 J.J. Freeman Tour 184Burning commenced immediately, and no entreaties of erf-holders, tears of mothers and children availed.
1867 Blue Bk for Col. 1866 JJ44Many of the native erf-holders are too poor and others too lazy, to cultivate their erven.
1873 F. Boyle To Cape for Diamonds 318It was the bit of ground on which his Kaffirs ‘sorted’ which was rightfully taken from him, on application of the erf-holder.
1896 M.A. Carey-Hobson At Home in Tvl 431Pilfering continually going on in the gardens of the Pretorian erfholders.
1914 L.H. Brinkman Breath of Karroo 53The monopoly of a small number of water-erf holders.
1924 G. Baumann in Baumann & Bright Lost Republic (1940) 86I advised the Municipality to buy out the erf-holders to the south.
1977 Grocott’s Mail 2 Sept. 1Who draws the rent for the properties, including the shacks which at present are part of the erf-holder’s income?
A plot of land;
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