township, noun
- Origin:
- British EnglishShow more Special senses of British English township ‘each of the local divisions of, or districts comprised in, a large original parish (etc.)’ (OED).
1. [Probably from Australian and N.Z. English ‘a site laid out prospectively for a town’ (from 1802) (OED).] A site laid out by a local authority for a new suburb; an area of land to be subdivided and sold by developers as freehold residential or industrial plots.
- Note:
- Quotations 1929 and 1934 might belong at sense 2 a.
1929 Workers’ Herald 7 Sept. 4The Township of Sophiatown, one of the suburbs of the City of Johannesburg, is being severely exercised by the Proclamation issued by the Governor-General under the Natives (Urban Areas) Act, declaring the Township as one of many where Natives are not allowed to reside except those who own plots of ground.
1982 E. Prov. Herald 29 Dec. (Suppl.)Proclaimed township with insurance guarantee covering Tarred roads. Water. Electricity.
2. a. [from sense 1; see quotations 1929 and 1934 above.] A suburb or city developed near a ‘White’ urban area for occupation by Black African people only (see quotation 1980); Bantoedorp, see Bantoe sense 2; location sense 3 a; stat sense 2. See also black-belt (black adjective sense 1 d). b. Less frequently, a residential area for Coloured people. Also attributive.
1941 W.M.B. Nhlapo in Bantu World 1 Mar. 9Most of the townships (except Pimville) now have some form of street lighting.
1992 Weekly Mail 24 Apr. 32Through his works..he (sc. George Pemba) has become..the ‘grandfather of township art’.
c. In pl. : The townships, collectively, the urban Black residential areas of South Africa; transferred sense, the people of the townships.
1993 Cape Times 10 Aug. 6We wept for all the violence in the land — almost all of which has been much closer to her than it has to me. That is, in the townships.
A site laid out by a local authority for a new suburb; an area of land to be subdivided and sold by developers as freehold residential or industrial plots.
A suburb or city developed near a ‘White’ urban area for occupation by Black African people only (see quotation 1980); Bantoedorp, see Bantoe sense 2; location sense 3 a; stat sense 2.
Less frequently, a residential area for Coloured people. Also attributive.
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