rainbow, noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Special sense of general English, alluding to the colours of a rainbow.
Used attributively in figurative. senses, alluding to the country’s many cultures: of or pertaining to the transformed non-racial South African society. Frequently in the collocations rainbow children, rainbow nation, rainbow people.
1994 Mrs Mngcongo in Grocott’s Mail 29 Apr. 2Everyone can be happy because God helps all his rainbow children.
1994 B. Ronge in Sunday Times 5 June 19They have placed it deftly in the context of South Africa’s ‘rainbow nation’.
1994 G. Willoughby in Weekly Mail & Guardian 17 June 42What’s available? A rainbow-nation’s worth of colours and tastes.
1994 F. Mabuse-Suttle on CCV TV 21 Aug. (Top Level)We are the rainbow people.
1994 J. Sharp in Democracy in Action Vol.8 No.5, 12Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others have referred to South Africa as a ‘rainbow nation’, enjoining us to celebrate our diversity.
1994 Style Oct. 10Became a born-again South African when he returned..to the rainbow nation after having lived in Toronto, Canada, for five years.
of or pertaining to the transformed non-racial South African society. Frequently in the collocations rainbow children, rainbow nation, rainbow people.
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figurative or allusive
rainbird, nounn.rain frog, noun phrasen. phr.
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