Hotnot, noun

/ˈhɔtnɔt/
Forms:
Also with small initial.
Origin:
South African Dutch, DutchShow more South African Dutch, contracted form of Dutch Hottentot, see Hottentot.
offensive
1. obsolete. Khoikhoi sense 1. Also attributive.
[1812 A. Plumptre tr. of H. Lichtenstein’s Trav. in Sn Afr. (1928) I. 118A Hottentot..expects to be called Hottentot (which he pronounces Hotnot) or boy.]
1846 A.G. Bain Jrnls (1949) 201Our sweet Hotnot ladies.
1946 P. Abrahams Mine Boy (1954) 65She was called Hotnot Annie and claimed to be pure Hottentot.
2. derogatory. An insulting term of address or reference to a coloured person. Also attributive.
1947 C.R. Prance Antic Mem. 76Oom Jurie and Neef Japie must dig a 6-foot hole and bury it properly, if there were no Hotnots available as grave-diggers.
1956 A. Sampson Drum 201They joked..about apartheid, and about..being called bushmen, hotnots, coolies, with compulsory wounding laughter.
1956 A. La Guma in New Age 27 Sept. 6Who did you kill? A white man or a hotnot or a kaffir?
1960 J. Cope Tame Ox 27Nico had made the ‘law’ to keep Crispus from contamination by the coloureds...No mixing whatever with..the two little Hotnots.
1969 A. Fugard Boesman & Lena 19Shake his hand! Fancy Hotnot like you.
1974 J.M. Coetzee Dusklands 108I’m just a poor hotnot, master, only one more chance, my master, my father.
1973 A. Small in Evening Post 16 July 3Racists who thought in terms of ‘hotnots’..had no place on the University of the Western Cape campus.
1975 Sunday Times 21 Sept. 21I was..ordered to go to the ‘Hotnot’ cafe down the road, and told bluntly: ‘We don’t allow Hotnots to walk around here.’
1978 Daily Dispatch 24 Nov. 9Five knife-bearing white vigilantes..jumped out of a car shouting: ‘Leave that hotnot maid.’
1987 B. Pearson in Weekly Mail 17 July 11In South Africa they had been ‘Cape Coloureds’, voteless, politically powerless, neither oppressed black nor privileged white..‘just Hotnots born on the wrong side of the track’.
1992 M. Tyala in Evening Post 27 Mar. 10They were not going to let any kaffirs, hotnots or koelies even think of coming near the suburb.
3. In full Hotnot fish: Hottentot noun sense 2. Also occasionally dimunitive form Hotnotjie /ˈhɔtnɔɪki/ [see -ie].
1951 L.G. Green Grow Lovely 84‘Hotnot!’ came the high-pitched call of the hawker. When the housewives came to their doors, they found not only hotnot fish but snoek..and penguin eggs.
1970 C. Kinsley Informant, Koegasbrug, Northern CapeHotnotjies. Fish.
1973 J. Cope in S. Gray Writers’ Territory 115Mr Katz pulled up two more [fish] in quick succession. ‘My, but you good. The hotnots is skelm but you more skelm, mister,’ he said.
1977 Darling 8 June 118Hotnotjies, a round, dark, most tasty fish resembling a small galjoen.
‖4. Special Combinations (usually with Afrikaans combining form -s-).
hotnotskooigoed /-ˈkʊɪxut/ [Afrikaans, kooigoed bedding, kooi bed + goed stuff], any of several species of Helichrysum, a laxly-branched aromatic shrub found in dry regions, used by the Khoikhoi and some modern campers as bedding and occasionally medicinally;
hotnotskool /-ˈkʊəl/ [Afrikaans, kool cabbage], veldkool (see veld sense 5);
hotnotskoolbredie /-ˌbrɪədi/ [Afrikaans, see bredie], a stew of meat and any of several species of edible wild plant;
hotnotstaal /-ˌtaːl/ [Afrikaans, taal language], a derogatory name for Afrikaans noun;
hotnotsvis, hotnotvis /-ˌfəs/ [Afrikaans, vis fish], Hottentot fish, see Hottentot noun sense 2;
hotnotsvy, hotnotsvyg /-ˌfeɪ(x)/ [Afrikaans, vy (earlier vyg) fig], Hottentot fig, Hottentot’s fig, see Hottentot sense 6 a.
1947 L.G. Green Tavern of Seas 199Hotnotskooigoed, a shrub campers use as bedding, is also a remedy for colds and asthma.
1966 C.A. Smith Common Names 251Hotnotskooigoed,..Formerly used by vagrant Hottentots as bedding (Afr.: kooigoed) and still used by campers as bedding.
1979 Sunday Times 15 July 5This is hotnotskooigoed, it’s good for a weak heart.
1917 R. Marloth Dict. of Common Names of Plants 41Hotnots’kool, Anthericum hispidum and A. revolutum.
1950 H. Gerber Cape Cookery 87Hotnotskool Bredie. Use the young unopened flower shoots of ‘hotnotskool’ (Anthericos longifolium). They look like asparagus...You could use any cauliflower recipe for ‘hotnotskool’ as it resembles cauliflower in flavour.
1975 Argus 17 Sept. 28If you care for waterblommetjie bredie you would find Hotnotskoolbredie (made from Hottentot cabbage) just as delicious, she says. ‘One picked off the snake-like stalks and used them with onions, small young potatoes and fresh lamb chops.’
1987 W.A. De Klerk in Sunday Times 25 Jan. 32The Taalmanne..recognised that the vernacular Afrikaans despised as a hotnotstaal was in fact the true language of the Afrikaners.
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 299To the majority of Boers, Afrikaans was a mish-mash of bastardised Dutch, English, Xhosa and Malayan words — ‘Hotnotstaal’ (Hottentot’s language).
1975 S. Afr. Panorama July 17The surf is the place for catching galjoen..while hotnotvis..can be landed from the rocks.
1985 J. Baron in Frontline Feb. 30Clean the hotnotsvis, not worrying too much about the scales and fins.
1971 R. Raven-Hart Cape G.H. 1652–1702 503Hotnotsvyg..is not ‘Sword-lily’, nor could leaves be so used.
Khoikhoi sense 1. Also attributive.
An insulting term of address or reference to a coloured person. Also attributive.
In full Hotnot fish: Hottentot noun sense 2. Also occasionally dimunitive form Hotnotjie /ˈhɔtnɔɪki/ [see -ie].
Entry Navigation
hot, nounn., interjectionint., & adjectiveadj.Hottentot, nounn. & adjectiveadj.
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