kragdadig, adjective

/kraxˈdɑːdəx/
Forms:
Also (attributive) kragdadige /-ə/.
Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, resolute, firm, vigorous.
Usually of politicians or government policies: uncompromising, autocratic, heavy-handed.
1952 Cape Times 21 May 5The Government wanted to make scapegoats of himself and Mr. C— so that it could claim kragdadige (strong) steps against communism.
1958 Cape Times 18 Feb. 8Mr. Sauer’s answer was that the inquiry was merely United Party propaganda and he was not going to answer it...That is at least a nice kragdadige answer.
1962 A.J. Luthuli Let my People Go 163The Nationalists encourage their followers to look forward to show-downs..with their opponents. No doubt these will become progressively more kragdadig.
1973 Sunday Times 15 Apr. 17Even the Minister of Sport..could not restrain himself from issuing one of those kragdadige statements that get no one anywhere.
1974 Cape Times 28 Sept. (Suppl.) 1By its very nature a kragdadige Government acts and enacts but seldom enlightens or consults its electorate on what is being done and why.
1979 Sunday Times 18 Nov. 21While he bluntly advocates a heavy-handed, ‘kragdadige’ approach to terrorism, he also tells the politicians that the real solution is not a military one.
1981 Sunday Times 25 Jan. 4The party cannot help showing its true colours in the typical kragdadige action we have seen in the closure of Post and Sunday Post this week.
1986 R.A.F. Swart in Hansard 9 June 7951‘Kragdadige Minister Le Grange’ virtually telling the security forces to carry on doing whatever they have been doing and that he will answer the ‘questions at the top’.
1993 P. Van Niekerk in Weekly Mail 18 June 15De Klerk..is, after all, a man who broke with the kragdadige tradition of his predecessors to engage in a debate about what the future South Africa should look like.
uncompromising, autocratic, heavy-handed.
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Afrikaans
kraal, verb transitivev.kragdadigheid, nounn.
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