rooinek - DSAE

1891 J. Kelly Coming Revolt of Eng. in Tvl 6Those were..glorious times, when our gallant Burghers drove the Rooi Neks before them like sheep, and shot them down like rabbits. I was one of the stormers of Majuba.

1896 H.A. Bryden Tales of S. Afr. 210Cornelis would open up, and yarn to me in a way that, until you know him well, the Boer seldom manifests to the rooi-nek.

1897 Schulz & Hammar New Africa 397Rooi Nek, once a term of bantering endearment, has unfortunately lost its charm since it has been converted into a term of dislike by the Boers for the foreigner.

1899 ‘S. Erasmus’ Prinsloo 14One morning he was on the market with his waggon when two men — English Rooineks — came and said: ‘Piet, do you want to make £15?’

1902 M’Cormick in E. Hobhouse Brunt of War 97We were the ‘verdomte rooineks’ (red-necks), and often they would say, ‘You kill my father or brother at the war.’

1905 P. Gibbon Vrouw Grobelaar 39He told us a story about a rooinek that bought a sheep, and the man gave him a dog in a sack, and he paid for it and went away, and we all laughed at it.

1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 412Rooinek, Originally a jocose Dutch name for an Englishman, subsequently used somewhat contemptuously, and occasionally preceded by a vigorous adjective.

1924 L.H. Brinkman Glory of Backveld 73The word ‘rooinek’ (red-neck) is an epithet for ‘Englishman,’ due to the fact that, as a rule, an Englishman coming to South Africa, and unaccustomed to the hot, glaring sunshine, burns red in face, neck and hands. When a Boer addresses an Englishman by that epithet it is a sure sign that he is well disposed towards him and counts him as a friend, otherwise he would take no such liberties.

1928 L.P. Greene Adventure OmnibusThe Boer drew a revolver, which he levelled at Major’s head. ‘Hands up!’ he growled in a harsh, gutteral voice. ‘I say, Hands up, you verdoemte roinek!’

1945 N. Devitt People & Places 144The Englishman of the early ’eighties was dubbed ‘Rooinek’, because of the habit of the sundowner type of man to tramp the countryside humping his swag, wearing a cap which left his neck exposed to the hot sun.

1949 H.C. Bosman Cold Stone Jug (1969) 147Of course no rooinek can make a living out of farming, unless they send him money every month from England.

1962 Times (U.K.) 6 Jan. 7The [English] boys [at Sasolburg] were constantly taunted by school-mates as ‘Pommie’, ‘Limey’, and ‘Rooinek’.

1963 S. Cloete Rags of Glory 316The Englishmen were sunburned, red as lobsters. They did not go brown like the Boers. That’s why we call them rooineks — rednecks — Renata thought.

1972 Daily Dispatch 2 Feb. 6That humour is full of nasty little racist jibes, which we South Africans have been listening to for the past 10 years, about Van der Merwe and the Rooinekke and ‘a bantu’.

1973 E. Prov. Herald 8 Sept. 3It’s quite a thing being appointed commodore of a South African fleet, especially as I’m a rooinek.

1977 Sunday Times 7 Aug. (Mag. Sect.) 3I mean, belonging to the minority white group, namely the English-speaking of the country, I’m only a ‘rooinek’ to the Afrikaner.

1983 F.G. Butler Bursting World 189It was silly to refer to the people of South Africa, when there were clearly many peoples there — Afrikaners, and Zulus, and Pondos, and Rooineks.

1987 H. Prendini in Style Feb. 30Typical of us unscrupulous rooinek reporters, I immediately jump to all sorts of subversive conclusions.

1992 M. Calitz in Weekend Post 25 Apr. 13I respectfully wonder whether your correspondent..could be one of those ‘rooineks’ who have a paranoia about the English language.

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rooinek, noun

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