sell-out, noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more From general English sell out to betray.
Especially designating a (Black) person perceived to be co-operating with apartheid: a collaborator, a betrayer of his or her people. Also attributive. See also impimpi.
1960 Z.K. Matthews in H. Spottiswoode S. Afr.: Rd Ahead 189With the usual quota of quislings and ‘sell-outs’ to be found among all people, much can be done to keep vast sections of the population in a kind of mental dungeon.
1969 Post 25 May 2‘Sell-out’ Chieftainess gets sack.
1974 A.P. Brink Looking on Darkness 335I’m White. But I’m revolting against everything White represents in this country, and so my sympathy lies with those who aren’t White. It turns me into a sell-out and a traitor, since in our society every person is judged, and damned, by his relation to a particular group.
1976 E. Prov. Herald 19 Oct. 13He was invited to address Stellenbosch University, the first ‘Coloured’ selected..and pressed ahead, in spite of the severest criticism from the ‘Coloured leaders’ of the day, who branded him ‘a sell-out’.
1977 J. Hoffman in Quarry ’77 56By November the fact that we were comparatively untouched and healthy, while other schools were burnt out or invaded, would become a cause for reproach. Some of us would feel ourselves a college for sell-outs.
1979 M. Matshoba Call Me Not a Man 99Sellouts seldom go around with familiar faces...Wisdom says that any stranger may be a sellout.
1983 Frontline May 37The ‘sell-outs’..who have made good through the white man’s system, are so unpopular that they have to ride around in armoured cars.
1987 Cosmopolitan Aug. 192The black musicians who joined Simon’s triumphant tour were labelled sell-outs by some far-left organisations. But overseas, it was clear that ‘sell-out’ meant no seats available.
1988 N. Mathiane in Frontline Apr.–May 12What do you do when you are told to necklace an informer, and refusing implies you are condoning ‘sell-outs’ and therefore your home will be gutted?
1990 R. Malan in Cosmopolitan Apr. 166If you lived in Soweto, there were some things you dared not say for fear of being labelled a sellout. Sellouts did not live long.
1993 Weekly Mail & Guardian 13 Aug. 35The man with the megaphone said: ‘The DP says Helen Suzman has helped you. But what has she brought you? Not two cents. Blacks working for the DP are nothing but sell-outs.’
1994 Weekly Mail & Guardian 16 Sept. 12The targets of this new rough justice are no ‘sell-outs’ or impimpis — they are alleged criminals.
a collaborator, a betrayer of his or her people. Also attributive.
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self-governing, participial adjectivepart. adj.selons, nounn.
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