Nat, noun and & adjective

/næt/, /nat/
Forms:
Also NAT, and with small initial.
Plurals:
Nats, ‖Natte /ˈnatə/, Nattes /ˈnatəs/.
Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Abbreviation of National, Nationalist, translation of Afrikaans Nasionaal National, Nasionalis Nationalist, referring to the National Party.
colloquial
A. noun
a. Abbreviation of Nationalist noun sense a.
Note:
See note at SAP noun1 sense 2.
1926 M. Nathan S. Afr. from Within 274Of late there has been much talk of toenadering or rapprochement between the ‘Saps’ and the ‘Nats’.
1934 W. Saint-Mandé Halcyon Days Afr. 24Labour had done right to join forces with the Nats.
1943 Weekend News & Sunday Mag. 20 Mar. 4We is realising dat jou is de fren orf orl de peoples excep de blerry Nats.
1956 A. Sampson Drum 159The English just use long words and big talk...Segregation — ah — democracy — ah, civilised men...The Dutchmen just say ‘you blerry Kaffir, you, voetsak!’ They both mean the same; but with the Dutchmen, you know where you are, man! Give me the Nats!
1973 Sunday Times 8 July 14The review will find great appeal with the South African who votes Prog and Sap but who every day thanks the Lord for the Nats.
1977 F.G. Butler Karoo Morning 99If you were a Nat it was your sacred duty to fight for your language and the Vierkleur; if a Sap, you knew you were fighting for Britain, the Union Jack and Progress.
1990 G. Slovo Ties of Blood 224The Nats had easily comprehensible aims: they promised to the country that they would save the whites from the three-fold threat of coloured blood, the black peril and the red menace.
1990 Sunday Times 30 Sept. 22The Nattes and Sappe behaved as badly at political meetings in decades past.
1994 P. Lee in Style May 59We are starting to grasp a future without the wagging finger of a Nat in a hat.
b. With qualifying word: bloednat /ˈblʊt-/ [Afrikaans, bloed blood], an ultra-conservative, dyed-in-the-wool Nationalist; cf. bloedsap; brown Nat, see brown adjective sense 2 a; new Nat, see quotations 1990 and 1993; cf. neo-Nationalist (see Nationalist noun sense b).
1986 D. Van Heerden in Frontline Mar. 35The conservatives are large in number..but relatively small in influence...They are ‘Bloednatte’ who will still vote Nat when Mangosuthu Buthelezi receives the Paul Sauer medal for service to the Party.
1987 H. Barker in Frontline Apr. 6New Nats...Do they not count Mandela among those with whom negotiation must take place?
1987 K. Carlean in Grocott’s Mail 31 Mar. 1There will be a very important base for new realignments in politics which might encourage new nats still lurking in the National Party to cross the floor.
1990 Frontline Jan. 1In March 1986, Frontline coined the term ‘the New Nats’ for left-wing National Party members who planned to implement drastic change working within the NP.
1993 P. Laurence in Leadership Vol.12 No.2, 48The real threat lies in the future rather than in the past; and it emanates from black nationalists — the ‘New Nats’ — rather than the Afrikaner nationalists.
B. adjective
1. In the collocation Nat Party: NP sense 1.
1938 Forum 25 Apr. 48 (caption)Nat Party.
1982 M.W. Serote in Chapman & Dangor Voices from Within 111My father..complaining about the prime minister and the laws and the nat party.
2.
a. Abbreviation of Nationalist adjective.
1955 Rand Daily Mail 2 May 11West believes in Nat. Policy of ‘Baasskap’.
1974 Daily Dispatch 27 Feb. 14 (caption)Now, now, Agatha, let’s continue as a lawful gathering — no anti-Nat sentiments please!
1987 P. Wilhelm in Optima Vol.35 No.2, 63Abandon Apartheid! Abandon Nat Rule!
1988 Broadsheet (Progressive Federal Party)Over the past forty years, Nat policies have driven our once proud nation further and further into the wilderness, into quarantine.
1991 Sunday Tribune 19 May 20One knows, of course, that Maggie has friends in high Nat places.
1994 Style May 97All those who thought a post-Nat government would at least be more purposeful are in for a horrible shock.
b. With qualifying word:
neo-Nat, of or pertaining to a reformed, relatively liberal Nationalism. Cf. neo-Nationalist (see Nationalist noun sense b).
1985 Sunday Times 29 Sept. 12C— could be described as a neo-Nat technocrat, a member of the President’s Council and a former journalist.
Abbreviation of Nationalist noun sense a.
bloednat /ˈblʊt-/ [Afrikaans, bloed blood], an ultra-conservative, dyed-in-the-wool Nationalist; cf. bloedsap; brown Nat, see brown adjective sense 2 a; new Nat, see quotations 1990 and 1993; cf. neo-Nationalist (see Nationalist noun sense b).
In the collocation Nat Party: NP sense 1.
Abbreviation of Nationalist adjective.
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Narina, nounn.2Natal, nounn.
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