mailer, noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Probably transferred use of English mailer one who conveys mail.
historical, slang
A liquor-runner who bought from a regular outlet, for resale to an illicit liquor dealer or drinking establishment. Also occasionally shortened to mail. See also gweva.
Note:
Under the Liquor Act (Act No. 30 of 1928) the supply of spirituous liquor to anyone but a White person was outlawed; this led to the employment of lighter-skinned or White people as liquor-runners.
1950 E. Partridge Dict. of Underworld 428Mail, A liquor-carrier for an illicit saloon, etc.
1950 Cape Times 17 June (Weekend Mag.) 5As soon as the bottle-store opens, the mailer is there. He gets his regulation two bottles and takes this to the shebeen. Then he goes to another bottle-store for a further two bottles. And so he goes on the whole day.
1950 Cape Times 17 June (Weekend Mag.) 5 [see dop noun sense 3 a].
1952 ‘Skappie’ in Drum Nov. 6Shebeens always depended upon the ‘mail’. Before all liquor purchases were recorded, your ‘mail’ was a white, or near-white, who supplied on a commission basis...These ‘mails’..often spent a considerable part of their lives in jail.
1959 Drum Jan. 27I have to rely on the services of ‘mailers’. These are ordinary white men who are allowed to enter bottle stores, and for a small fee will buy liquor for us.
1959 Cape Argus 14 Nov. 2When we stopped the delivery the shebeens arranged for mailers to get the liquor for them.
1962 T. Hopkinson In Fiery Continent 101A couple of hard-case whites. These last were ‘mailers’, purveyors of illicit liquor. They buy drink, chiefly brandy and beer, at liquor stores as if for themselves, and turn it over to the shebeen ‘queens’.
1974 in Eng. Usage in Sn Afr. Vol.5 No.1, 10Various social practices are reflected in the terminology...The outside term ‘mailer’ was common before the liquor-for-all days.
1977 D. Muller Whitey 32By this time the legal bottle-stores would be open, and the ‘mailers’ — the runners from shebeens big and small — would be at the counters, buying supplies for the long-week-end-thirst.
1986 D. Case Love, David 110‘Yes, Oupa,’ David explained. ‘I was working with a mailer. The day that they caught us, I had a few parcels on me.’
A liquor-runner who bought from a regular outlet, for resale to an illicit liquor dealer or drinking establishment. Also occasionally shortened to mail.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

19501986

Browse Related Words

By Category

Alcoholic Drinks
Occupations

By Origin

English

By Usage

historical
slang
mail, verbv.main man, noun phrasen. phr.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English