ou, adjective

/əʊ/
Forms:
Also with initial capital, and (formerly) oud.
Origin:
Afrikaans, DutchShow more Afrikaans ou, earlier Dutch oud old.
Old, elder.
1. In collocations and special collocations, as a term of address or reference:
a. With a name or title, a respectful term of address or reference to an older person. See also oubaas, ouboet, ouma, oupa.
1838 J.E. Alexander Exped. into Int. II. 231We had not been long among Henrick Buy’s people, before his elder brother, ‘oud Jan,’ rejoined us.
1905 P. Gibbon Vrouw Grobelaar 197They bore the body to the shade of the tobacco shed. ‘And now,’ said Peter..‘who is to tell the ou tante?’
1939 ‘D. Rame’ Wine of Good Hope 80Has Mis’ ’Tonia seen the Ou-Missis?
1968 G. Croudace Silver Grass 27Ou Adriaan, as he was called, welcomed them with the grave dignity of the Afrikaner patriarch.
1970 M. Muller Cloud across Moon 14Ou Christiaan and Ou Attie, who had worked for Trina for over thirty years, were busy in the garden.
1971 A. Fugard Hello & Goodbye 13I hate them when they’re like that — fat and dressed in black..because somebody’s dead, and calling me Ou Sister.
1975 E. Prov. Herald 12 June 2Mr Murray said he could not wait for the time when Dr Koornhof became ‘Oom Piet’. ‘As long as I don’t become “Ou Piet”,’ Dr Koornhof interjected.
1980 C. Hope A Separate Development (1983) 169Pielletjies, ou Neels, Lubavitch and Stokkies all came with me on the day I was taken to see the terrible Mr. Dekker.
1985 Fair Lady 1 May 20Ag, poor ou Wallaby. I always knew your memory wasn’t too lekker.
1987 M. Melamu Children of Twilight 43Ou Johannes had been Ferreira’s ‘boss-boy’.
b. With a name, an affectionate or jocular term of address or reference.
1975 ‘Blossom’ in Darling 9 Apr. 95She may be a moaner but she’s not dumb, ou Trix.
1985 P. Slabolepszy Sat. Night at Palace 29We got to phone ou Dougie now.
1990 ‘K. Lemmer’ in Weekly Mail 8 Feb. 11Ou FW said he was going to scrap all this race classification in the interests of a future that will at least be grey if not altogether rosy.
1991 ‘K. Lemmer’ in Weekly Mail 19 Apr. 10You know, I was probably a little harsh on ou Chris B— last week when I pointed out that he claimed to have called for the release of Nelson Mandela 30 years ago, three years before Nelson Mandela was jailed.
c. Special collocations
ou china, ‘old mate’;
ou kêrel, see kêrel sense 1 b;
ou maat, see maat sense 2;
ou pellie, see pellie;
ou seun/- siœn/ [Afrikaans, seun son, boy], ‘old son’.
1975 C. Hope in Bolt No.12, 5How’s it ou china, ou bebops, ou maat — Ek se, major, can you battle us some start?
1960 C. Hooper Brief Authority 225‘The Western Front — where’s that?’ ‘Zeerust, ou seun. There where the kaffirs are making riots.’
2. Belonging to a time in the past.
1946 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Cask of Jerepigo (1972) 162I was also astonished at the extent of my familiarity with historical events..that had taken place in the ou Transvaal.
3. Traditional, old-style.
1974 Sunday Times 12 May 14Every patriotic South African is now under a duty to fill the lads up with anything and everything from buchu brandy to a flagon of ou dop.
1988 J. Crwys-Williams in Style Mar. 18Also available..are first courses of the like of ou Kaapse snoek pâté.
Old, elder.
a respectful term of address or reference to an older person.
With a name, an affectionate or jocular term of address or reference.
Belonging to a time in the past.
Traditional, old-style.
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Afrikaans
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ou, nounn.oubaas, nounn.
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