red, adjective and & noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Special senses of general English.
A. adjective
1. In the special collocations red beak, and red bill [translation of Afrikaans rooibekkie], rooibekkie sense 1.
1795 [see rooibekkie sense 1].
1822 W.J. Burchell Trav. I. 266The Roode-bekje (Red beak), a small finch,..is a very common bird.
1923 Haagner & Ivy Sketches of S. Afr. Bird-Life 116The Common Waxbill (Estrilda astrild), more widely known in South Africa as the Rooibekje (Red-bill),..may be found in enormous flocks.
2. Of certain African peoples (formerly often in the offensive collocation red kaffir):
a. obsolete [translation of a Northern Sotho word: see Tammaka.] Usually in the plural, and with initial capitals: Collectively, members of the Tammaka people.
1821 Missionary Notices June 201To the N.E. of the above-mentioned place, (about four days’ journey) there is a large and populous town, called by the natives Meribahwhey, inhabited by an extensive tribe, called the Tammakas, or Red Caffres.
1824 W.J. Burchell Trav. II. 532The principal nations of which I could procure any account from the natives, were; — eastward from Litakun, the Támmmakas or Batámmmakas, (Red people) called by the Klaarwater Hottentots, Roode Kaffers (Red Caffres).
1846 R. Moffat Missionary Labours 4From this class of people, the Tamahas, or Red people, as the etymology of the word imports, who are by the Griquas called Red Kafirs, arose.
b. [Referring to the red ochre traditionally used by Xhosa peoples to smear the body and clothing.]i. obs. Xhosa adjective sense 2. ii. Of a Xhosa: from a traditional rural and tribal culture; blanket sense a; red blanket adjectival phrase sense 1. Cf. raw sense a. iii. derogatory. Heathen; red blanket adjectival phrase sense 1. iv. derogatory. raw sense b; so the superlative form reddest. In these senses also red-blanketed. Cf. school adjective sense 1.
1835 A. Steedman Wanderings II. 18The red clay with which they are accustomed to besmear their bodies..has..obtained for them among earlier travellers the distinction of Red Caffers. This peculiar clay is found in the vicinity of the Fish River.
1855 G. Brown Personal Adventure 167When all the men had got back, both station people, red Caffres, and Hottentots, the station itself seemed converted into one vast shambles.
1877 R.M. Ballantyne Settler & Savage 417Shouts and yells that would have done credit to the wildest tribe of reddest Kafirs in the land.
1878 A. Aylward Tvl of Today 376These despised races are inflicting..much more severe losses on the men now in the field than the Red Kafirs have done in the late war.
1882 C. Du Val With Show through Sn Afr. I. 137I saw for the first time a tribe known as Red Kaffirs, from a fashion they had been daubing not only their bodies and faces, but their garments and blankets, with a species of red clay or loam.
1891 T.R. Beattie Ride through Transkei 6I have not yet spoken to a ‘red’ Kafir who does not confess to drinking kakulu of the national beverage.
1894 E. Glanville Fair Colonist 145‘Mawoh!’ exclaimed the others, and two or three seized their kerries, for they were red Kaffirs, and the blood of warriors was in their veins.
1908 F.C. Slater Sunburnt South 45He beheld a young red girl approaching. Now Moses, as a rule, looked upon red people with scorn and contempt, and unhesitatingly dubbed them ‘ignorant heathen.’
1912 Ayliff & Whiteside Hist. of Abambo 77It cannot be doubted that the Christian Fingo is more progressive than his ‘red’ neighbour, more appreciative of education, and a more enterprising farmer.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 239Raw or Red Kaffir, the latter sometimes shortened to Reds, are designations applied to these people in their uncivilized condition; the epithet ‘red’ having reference to the red clay or ochre with which they smear themselves.
1925 D. Kidd Essential Kafir 30Red ochre and oil are rubbed into the skin, and frequently the blanket. When this latter is done by a tribe the people are called Red Kafirs, or merely ‘Reds’.
1925 F.C. Slater Centenary Bk of S. Afr. Verse 234Kaffir, A general name applied to members of the Bantu race; usually the Amaxosa or Red Kaffir is meant, in contrast to the Fingos, Zulus and Sechuanas.
1937 C. Birkby Zulu Journey 249Well over half of the million blacks in the Territories to-day are ‘Red Natives’ — the South African phrase for the blanketed kafir who lives a primitive life in a hillside hut, sleeping on mats, rearing a few scrub cattle, living on mealies and sour milk.
1948 E. Hellmann Rooiyard 103Some women regard the custom [of offering beer to the ancestors] with contempt as being performed only by ‘red’ or ‘blanket’ Natives and not by educated Natives.
1948 O. Walker Kaffirs Are Lively 42600,000 are classified as ‘Red’ or heathens.
1952 L.E. Neame White Man’s Afr. 46The Natives in the Reserves consist mainly of raw, or ‘red’ tribesmen who are intensely conservative.
1955 J.B. Shephard Land of Tikoloshe 22Most of the Red Africans whom we had met were well content with an occasional mess of wild spinach gathered casually from the veldt.
1961 P. Mayer Townsmen or Tribesmen 21There are parts of Xhosa country where the Red-School ‘problem’ hardly arises, in a practical sense, because a whole rural location is either solidly Red or solidly School.
1970 M. Tyack S. Afr.: Land of Challenge 144The Xhosa, among themselves, distinguish between tribally rooted persons, called the ‘Red People,’ and detribalized persons, called the ‘School People’. Currently the ‘Red People’ still outnumber the ‘School’ group.
1980 J. Cock Maids & Madams 70The ‘Red’ Xhosa wife spends several years in her mother-in-law’s homestead doing all the domestic work under her direction.
1980 D.B. Coplan Urbanization of African Performing Arts. 80The policy of encapsulation, which made mission stations islands of acculturation in a traditional sea, led to the structured opposition of ‘red’ (traditional) and ‘school’ (Western educated) categories of Xhosa speakers in the towns of the Eastern Cape.
1986 P.A. McAllister Xhosa Beer Drinks. 25Like ‘red’ Xhosa in East London, the migrants..cope with their situation largely by a kind of ‘encapsulation’.., one of the most important aspects of which is drinking together.
1993 CSD Bulletin (Centre for Science Dev.) July 19Western education and Christianity have divided rural African villagers in the Transkei into ‘school’ people and conservative or ‘red’ people...The social division into ‘school’ and ‘red’ is not an absolute distinction, but is best seen in terms of a continuum.
B. noun Often with initial capital. [Absolute uses of sense A 2 b.] Referring to the Xhosa: a. One who lives in a rural, traditional, tribal culture. b. A heathen. In both senses also called qaba, red blanket noun phrase.
1913 [see sense A 2 b].
1958 I. Vaughan Diary 18In this place we will see many kafirs called Reds becos they wear red clay blankets and beads.
1961 P. Mayer Townsmen or Tribesmen 28There are others who manage to remain good Reds in spite of their education — especially women who after being schooled have married Red husbands.
1963 Wilson & Mafeje Langa 17A great many of them are ‘school people’..and in the country distinguish themselves from ‘reds’.
1976 West & Morris Abantu 22The ‘Red’..are the conservatives who cling to tradition and eschew the ways of the West, including their religion.
In the special collocations red beak, and red bill [translation of Afrikaans rooibekkie], rooibekkie sense 1.
Usually in the plural, and with initial capitals:Collectively, members of the Tammaka people.
from a traditional rural and tribal culture; blanket sense a; red blanket adjectival phrase sense 1.
raw sense b; so the superlative form reddest. In these senses also red-blanketed.
One who lives in a rural, traditional, tribal culture.
A heathen. In both senses also called qaba, red blanket noun phrase.
Derivatives:
Hence (sense A 2 b) redness  noun, resistance to change among the rural Xhosa.
1993 CSD Bulletin (Centre for Science Dev.) July 19The ‘redness’ refers to an historical resistance to Western culture — in particular, to Western education and religion.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

18211993

Derivatives

redness

Browse Related Words

By Category

Birds
Peoples

By Origin

English

By Usage

obsolete or obsolescent
derogatory or offensive
recuse, verbv.red alder, noun phrasen. phr.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English