kwaai, adjective

/kwaɪ/
Forms:
kwaad, kwaajeShow more Formerly also kwaad, kwaaje, kwaat, kwai, kwi, quaai, quei.
Origin:
Afrikaans, South African DutchShow more Afrikaans, earlier South African Dutch kwaad bad, evil.
‖1.
a. Bad-tempered, aggressive, fierce. Also attributive, and transferred sense.
1827 G. Thompson Trav. 129Next, that the lions on the opposite side were more kwaad (angry or fierce) than those where we now were.
1851 N.J. Merriman Cape Jrnls (1957) 175The Boer informed me..I should come to the ‘Kwai’ or Fierce river, and I should be very lucky if it did not take me off my legs.
1852 C. Barter Dorp & Veld 57 (Pettman)The Boers meanwhile smiled and said that Mr...was a kwaad (angry) man.
[1890 A. Martin Home Life 111When the birds are savage — quei, as the Dutch call it — they become very aggressive.]
1900 B. Mitford Aletta 29‘Now we have made him kwaat,’ said Andrina. ‘See now, I’ll get him to laugh again.’...‘That has made him more kwaat than ever,’ whispered Condaas.
1900 B. Mitford Aletta 52Krantz Kop is at the far end of the berg, sir. Boer menschen up there very kwaai.
1908 F.C. Slater Sunburnt South 152She was a kwaai old vrouw, but, if she took a fancy to you, she would prove a very good friend.
1911 P. Gibbon Margaret Harding 184Quaai — that means bad-tempered.
1929 J.G. Van Alphen Jan Venter 282The Baas is very good but the Missus is a bit kwaai.
[1934 C.P. Swart Supplement to Pettman. 101President Kruger..spoke of Queen Victoria as a ‘Kwaaje Frau’, an expression which caused a good deal of offence in England at the time but which obviously was not meant by Kruger as insulting.]
1955 L.G. Green Karoo 127It takes courage of a high order to break the neck of a kwaai ostrich as a coloured mother did.
1987 E. Prov. Herald 26 Aug. 2The ‘kwaai’ months — August, September and October, when the weather at sea is rough and catches are poor.
b. comb.
kwaai-vriende [Afrikaans, vriende friends], bad friends.
1969 A. Fugard Boesman & Lena 28Don’t say anything. Just sit still. Pretend we’re still kwaai-vriende.
2. slang. A term of approval, equivalent to ‘great’ or ‘fantastic’.
1974 Eng. Usage in Sn Afr. Vol.5 No.1, 6Kwaai,..a general term of approval, retaining only the force of ‘kwaai’ not the meaning — denotes anything from ‘good’ to ‘beautiful’..a kwaai movie. She’s a kwaii goose. Kwaai, man, thanks.
1980 E. Patel They Came at Dawn 9The music is kwaai but nobody wants to d-a-n-c-e.
1981 St. Martin’s Chron. 3 JuneKwi, adj...extremely good, marvellous — ‘a kwi hamburger.’
1989 M. Brand in Fair Lady 25 Oct. 92Kwaai, groovy.
Bad-tempered, aggressive, fierce. Also attributive, and transferred sense.
A term of approval, equivalent to ‘great’ or ‘fantastic’.
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18271989

Compounds

kwaai-vriende
Kwa-, prefixpref.kwedini, nounn.
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