skaap, noun

/skɑːp/
Forms:
Also schaap.
Origin:
Afrikaans, South African DutchShow more Afrikaans skaap (earlier South African Dutch schaap) sheep.
‖1.
a. A sheep; mutton.
1882 C. Du Val With Show through Sn Afr. I. 270When you have filled his flesh-pots with the stew of the ‘schaap’, (sheep), his pipe with Boer tobacco, and poured him out a decoction he is pleased to call coffee,..you have crowned his happiness in the present.
1886 G.A. Farini Through Kalahari Desert 83If we would buy a sheep and share it with him, he would give us another when he got home; to this we of course assented, and the skaap was soon bought, caught, and slaughtered.
1966 L.G. Berger Where’s Madam 149Carmel was supposed to be a superb cook, but all the time I was there, we lived on skaap which appeared interminably.
[1980 Daily Dispatch 3 Dec. 2Operation Skaap helps Durban needy. A record number of sheep are to be sent to Durban for distribution among the needy...The custom, called Operation Skaap, was started by the late Moth Ebbo Bastard in Kokstad in 1946 and has been continued annually.]
b. combinations
skaaps pooitjies, skaaps pootjies/-pɔɪkis/ [Afrikaans, linking phoneme -s- + pootjies trotters], sheep’s trotters;
skaapvleis/-fleɪs/ [Afrikaans, vleis meat], mutton.
1982 Pace June 60Sheep’s feet, skaaps pooitjies, amanqina..call them what you will, they were once freely available as a cheap and tasty snack on the long way home from work...There were no sellers of skaaps pooitjies at all in that crowded market place at Dube.
1882 C. Du Val With Show through Sn Afr. I. 63Dinner at a Dutch farmhouse, en route to the Diamond Fields, is a delightful simplicity, consisting chiefly of ‘schaap fleish’ — (mutton) — eggs, brown-bread, and coffee.
2. figurative, derogatory. Also skaapie, skapie [see -ie.]
a. (Latterly especially in township slang) a simpleton; a country bumpkin; a fool.
1925 H.J. Mandelbrote tr. of O.F. Mentzel’s Descr. of Cape of G.H. II. 97The bystanders made fun of me, for I was the ‘schaap’, yet I explained that..I had not done so badly.
1944 ‘Twede in Bevel’ Piet Kolonel 130He was never noisy in enforcing discipline or giving orders; there was no shouting at or to his men. When irritated, he found the use of the word ‘skaap’ most effective.
1965 E. Mphahlele Down Second Ave 41I had stopped worrying over being called skapie — sheep — I was told that’s the label they stuck on to anybody fresh from the country.
1970 M. Dikobe Marabi Dance. 108Sepai is not a boy like the town ones. He is what we call ‘scapie — sheep’. He won’t allow me to go to the Social Centre or Bioscope.
1970 C.B. Wood Informant, Johannesburg, GautengHe’s a real ‘skaap’ (stupid chap).
1976 Citizen 9 Dec. 7Skaap — expression used to anger or wound person (e.g. ‘Can’t you talk proper yet, you skaap?’).
1978 A. Akhalwaya in Rand Daily Mail 10 July 7The ‘lahnie’ may think the ‘lightie’ is a ‘sny’ or a ‘skapie’ or a ‘kabaab’, but the lad is no bumpkin.
1978 L. Barnes in The 1820 Vol.51 No.12, 19If you want to call somebody a fool, you can take your pick from kabab, skaberash, pookoo, garrak and a host of others — all of them are ‘right way skapies’.
1982 M. Mzamane Children of Soweto 36‘He’s not doing too badly for a country skaapie,’ Monty said.
[1982 D. Bikitsha in Rand Daily Mail 14 Oct. (Eve) 5A fool, country bumpkin or yokel had a variety of titles [in ‘isicamtho’] too: vossie, mogo, skappie, barrie, zeff, battersby, mommish zow or zao.]
1988 S. Sole in Style Apr. 48After I had the car, I phoned this Captain, told him he is a skapie (sheep). Jee was he cross for me.
1988 S. Woodgate in Star 10 May 3Johannesburg’s controversial George Harrison statue was defaced at the weekend...The word, ‘skaap’ (sheep), as well as two Stars of David were stencilled in white on the 13m-high monument.
b. An insulting name for an Afrikaner person.
1981 [see hairyback].
1992 E.M. Macphail Mrs Chud’s Place 15Listen, Duif. I am called a skaap. Ja, and who called the French frogs, hey? Yes, and what about Yids and Huns?
A sheep; mutton.
(Latterly especially in township slang) a simpleton; a country bumpkin; a fool.
An insulting name for an Afrikaner person.
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18821992

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figurative or allusive
derogatory or offensive
skaam, adjectiveadj. & nounn.skaapbos, skaapbossie, nounn.
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