Vaalpens, noun
- Forms:
- Also Vaalpans, and (in attributive attributive use) with small initial.
- Plurals:
- unchanged, Vaalpense/ˈfɑːlpensə/, or (formerly) Vaalpensen.
With small initial in attributive use.
1. In historical contexts. [Afrikaans, vaal grey + pens belly, paunch (see quotations 1897 and 1905.] A member of the Kgalagadi people. Also attributive.
1871 J. Mackenzie Ten Yrs N. of Orange River 53Their fellow-countrymen to the south..sometimes call them ‘Vaalpensen’, which is the Dutch for Bakalahari, the ill-favoured and lean vassals of the Bechuanas.
1979 T. Gutsche There Was a Man 93‘The low Vaalpense’ as Soga called the residual Bushmen (the Bakalahari) — ‘human vultures’ who by instinct found dead animals and bore off infected meat in all directions.
2. colloquial [Perhaps a play on sense 1 and the name of the Vaal River, the southern boundary of the Transvaal.] A derogatory term for:
a. An Afrikaner person.
1899 E. Prov. Herald 6 Dec. 3A South African Dutchman writes us a somewhat bitter letter...He writes as a Dutch Afrikander, a Vaalpens in fact.
1979 Capetonian May 9‘My ancestors could read!’ I hear an indignant Vaalpens shouting from the back row...If there’s one thing I hate more than an illiterate stirrer of stywepap, then it’s a gatecrasher in velskoene.
b. Transvaler, see Transvaal.
1993 G. McIntosh in Sunday Times 20 June 23‘Amabhunu’ can have the hint of a ‘smear’ in it rather as the words ‘Vaalpens’ (Transvaler), ‘soutie’ (white English-speaking South African) and ‘hairyback’ (Afrikaner) have.
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