girl, noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Transferred use of general English girl a female servant.
offensive
a. An insulting term for a Black African woman, used irrespective of her age, social position, or occupation; Native girl, see Native noun sense 1 c. Cf. boy sense 1 a.
1859 T. Shone Diary. 5 Nov.He flogged Guika the girl.
1908 J.H. Drummond Diary. 15 Sept.Our girl, Jerry, is as nervous as she is black.
a1931 S. Black in S. Gray Three Plays (1984) 164The girl will bring you some coffee. But perhaps you rader prefer tea.
1953 D. Jacobson Long Way from London 52Lunch was served by Ben, the African houseboy, for the girl, Betty, had gone to the location to make sure that her son..was not among those injured.
1960 C. Hooper Brief Authority 37If wives go, they go usually to seek domestic service, to live on the premises of a white ‘missus’ who does not want ‘boys’ hanging around her ‘girl’.
1968 Cole & Flaherty House of Bondage 73Children watch how their parents treat the black ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ and soon the youngsters realize that they can get away with the same conduct.
1970 E. Mundell Informant, Pearston, Eastern CapeThe old girl will make us some tea. (Kitchen maid).
1970 Beeton & Dorner in Eng. Usage in Sn Afr. Vol.1 No.2, 12Girl,..Non-White female domestic servant, employee in business & industrial concerns.
1972 D.E. Ntambule in Daily Dispatch 29 Apr. 10Mr. G. Qumza had criticised the words ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ used by whites when referring to blacks...Whites, coloureds and Indians are never called ‘boy’ or ‘girl’. Why?
1973 Argus 19 Apr. 8I thank heaven for five sensible teenagers in the house,..and also for a ‘girl’ (I wish someone would call me by that name) of some many years of faithful and willing service.
1973 Drum 8 Sept. 10We are no longer a nation of ‘boys and girls’ as some people tend to think. We Blacks are men and women.
1980 J. Cock Maids & Madams 60Servants..are generally addressed in terms reserved for children and inferiors. The domestic worker is usually a ‘girl’ and the gardener a ‘boy’.
1980 C. Hope A Separate Development (1983) 30Our girl, Charity, sat rocking in her chair at the door. I say girl, as a manner of speaking. She was sharp boned, surly, somewhere between thirty and menopause.
1990 R. Malan My Traitor’s Heart 30Natives..ate on enamel plates and drank out of chipped cups with no handles, which were known as the boy’s cup or girl’s cup and kept separate from the rest of our china.
1990 J. Naidoo Coolie Location 5Lena, my Aunt Kootie’s African ‘girl’, spoke Tamil, when she wanted to, better even than I did.
b. With distinguishing epithet, specifying a particular occupation: cook-girl, kitchen girl, nurse-girl, tea girl, wash girl, washing girl.
1957 D. Jacobson Price of Diamonds 27It was about Sylvia, the native cook-girl, and Sylvia’s son Arthur.
1968 Cole & Flaherty House of Bondage 70Families who would be lucky to afford part-time help..if they lived in New York or London, have staffs of five or six full-time servants in South Africa. There is an African for every job — cook-girl or cook-boy, washing-girl and nannie, chauffeur, floor-boy, and garden boy.
1975 J. McClure Snake (1981) 148You say he went out to the cook girl’s kia to get the clock and tell her about the morning — why didn’t he shout for her? Is he a liberal?
1987 J. Matlou in Staffrider Vol.6 No.4, 38Matlou was a hard-working man and ‘good boy’...His wife was a ‘kitchen girl’ with a good old reputation.
1958 F.G. Butler in R.M. Macnab Poets in S. Afr. 6His ageing Xosa nurse-girl stands, head bent Unconsciously above her harbouring arms Where once his white resilience lay pent.
1974 E. Prov. Herald 24 Oct. 35We should not talk about garden-boys or teagirls when we refer to grown up people — call them gardeners, tea-maids, messengers and pool attendants.
1988 ‘Shiner’ in Personality 30 Mar. 4The only real sympathy I got was from the African tea girl — no wisecracks from her, just kindness.
1966 L.G. Berger Where’s Madam 45‘Seep-y,’ I sounded it after him, puzzled. ‘Soap’ he explained. ‘Oh, the Afrikaans word for soap. I see. What a peculiar name to give a baby. Why did you call it that?’ ‘Elizabeth she call it. She washgirl.’
1977 Sunday Times 27 Nov. 18I remember telling old Lucy, my wash girl, how lucky she was not to have the vote in the circumstances.
1989 [see cook boy boy sense 1 b].
An insulting term for a Black African woman, used irrespective of her age, social position, or occupation; Native girl, see Native noun sense 1 c.
cook-girl, kitchen girl, nurse-girl, tea girl, wash girl, washing girl.
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18591990

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derogatory or offensive
girdle, nounn.giya, nounn.
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