platteland, noun and & adjective
- Forms:
- Also plaatland, and with initial capital.
- Origin:
- AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, platte (combining form of plat flat) + land land.
A. noun
a. The rural areas or country districts; cf. backveld noun sense a.
1925 H.J. Mandelbrote tr. of O.F. Mentzel’s Descr. of Cape of G.H. 143Snakes and scorpions are fairly plentiful in the platteland, but are rarely met within Table Valley.
1990 Weekend Post 19 May 6In a city one would go to a shop and buy music to suit your needs, but on the platteland I find that it’s sometimes quicker just to compose something yourself.
b. With defining word: deep platteland, usually in political contexts, those rural areas which are furthest from the cities and thus most conservative.
1971 Daily Dispatch 6 Sept. 6They obviously..think that 70 voters in the deep Platteland should have the same say as 115 voters in the city.
1983 S. Afr. Digest 20 May 21The problem facing the Prime Minister is that the deep platteland still has an unequal influence on parliamentary politics...The rural vote is loaded to favour scattered farming communities.
B. adjective
a. Of or pertaining to the country districts. b. Rural, unsophisticated. Cf. backveld adjective.
1990 J. Naidoo Coolie Location 118Their faces were pumpkin-like, their platteland characteristics were unmistakable: glad-neck shirts, shorts, snub-nosed shoes with thick serrated rubber soles.
- Derivatives:
- Hence plattelander noun, one from the rural areas; cf. backvelder (see backveld noun).1948 Press Digest No.3, 22Generally speaking, the ‘plattelander’ knows what the Nationalist Party is and wants, while the city inhabitant does not know this.
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