jol, noun and & adjective
/dʒɔ(ː)l/
- Forms:
- Show more Also jaul, jawl, joll, jorl.
- Origin:
- Afrikaans, South African EnglishShow more Afrikaans (/jOl/), dance, party. The South African English pronunciation is either derived from the Afrikaans accent of working-class Cape coloured people, or is an Englished pronunciation of the Afrikaans word.
slang
A. noun
1.
a. A good time, a time of merry-making; a ‘thrash’. b. Always singular. (The source of) an intensely exciting or pleasurable time, activity, or experience, ‘a ball’. c. noncount. Revelry; merry-making; enjoyment; entertainment; fun and games. In the phrase on the jol, in search of this.
1957 A. La Guma in Best of S. Afr. Short Stories (1991) 385Classical stuff. Just a helluva noise. Give me a wakker jol any time.
1993 Weekly Mail 18 June 27Are you tired of..radio transmissions that go on the blink whenever you leave for a weekend jol?
2. A party, dance, concert, festival, or other lively social occasion. Also attributive.
1978 A. Akhalwaya in Rand Daily Mail 10 July 7Ek se, where y’all vying after the jol?...I say, where are you all going after the party?
1993 ‘Jimbo’ programme insert, NapacJoll. Discotheque, dance, party.
3. rare, perhaps nonce. A place.
1981 Rhodeo (Rhodes Univ.) 19 Oct. 2I was..sitting down..to check out some..reading...I had hardly had the time to wonder what..the guy was going on about, in the article when something distracted me. Like the whole jorl was filled with rumblings and shakings.
4. A joke, a game; a stunt.
1982 Cape Times 4 Jan. 3Jumping Jack’s ‘jorl’...Jumping Jack launches himself into a series of trampoline stunts, each of which ends in a seemingly disastrous fall.
1985 P. Slabolepszy Sat. Night at Palace 48I was only joking. You think I need to bust this joint? Bit of a jol, man. I don’t need to hit this place.
5. A (self-indulgent) trip or holiday.
1985 P. Slabolepszy Sat. Night at Palace 52There’s it! Take a jol over to Pretoria. Arcadia Pepsi. Those bastards need a striker.
B. adjective Of the music, language, etc. enjoyed by or associated with jollers (see joller sense 1).
1985 D. Kramer in Cape Times 16 MayThe concert explores my songs. The full range, from rock ’n roll to sakkie-sakkie, jol music, kwela and more serious ballads.
1985 H. Prendini in Style Oct. 39Student slang..tends to be more entertaining and imaginative and less deliberately vulgar than southern suburbs jol talk.
A good time, a time of merry-making; a ‘thrash’. b. Always singular. (The source of) an intensely exciting or pleasurable time, activity, or experience, ‘a ball’. c. noncount. Revelry; merry-making; enjoyment; entertainment; fun and games. In the phrase on the jol, in search of this.
A party, dance, concert, festival, or other lively social occasion. Also attributive.
A place.
A joke, a game; a stunt.
A (self-indulgent) trip or holiday.
Of the music, language, etc. enjoyed by or associated with jollers (see joller sense 1).
Visualise Quotations
Quotation summarySenses
Copyright © 2023 Dictionary Unit for South African English.