vastrap, noun

/ˈfastrap/
Forms:
Also vastrappe, vast-trap.
Origin:
Afrikaans, DutchShow more Afrikaans, vas (from Dutch vast) firm(ly) + trap tread.
1.
a. A fast dance similar to the quickstep, danced (in the Afrikaans community) to the accompaniment of a type of boeremusiek (sense 1). Also vastrappie [see -ie], and attributive. See also tickey-draai sense 1 a.
1913 E. London Dispatch 3 Jan. 5The vast-trap was performed by a number of nondescript characters who provided much amusement by their antics.
a1920 O.E.A. Schreiner From Man to Man (1926) 360Then she paused and began a reel. ‘This is the “vastrap”,’ she said...‘It’s what the Hottentots dance.’
1957 Cape Times 17 Jan. 7Rock and roll has affiliations with our own vastraps and tiekiedraais to which Coloured bands used to thrum the beat.
1959 J. Meiring Candle in Wind 38Rosie..was dancing a vastrap; her partner was swinging her arm vigorously up and down like a pump-handle, as he propelled her around the small kitchen.
1969 A. Fugard Boesman & Lena 12Lena’s still got a vastrap in her old legs. You want to dance Boesman. Not too late to learn.
1980 E. Prov. Herald 22 Nov. 5When disco dancing is long forgotten, the old-time vastrappies and polkas will live on.
1984 Sunday Times 1 Jan. 11Jawellnofine. Move over Kavalier — Jarman is going to be a big hit in the vastrappie stakes.
1991 S. Afr. Panorama May–June 20The sparkling vastrap..is reminiscent of the two step or foxtrot.
1994 [see langarm n.].
b. Music. The style of music played to accompany this dance; a piece of music in this style. Also attributive.
1920 R.Y. Stormberg Mrs Pieter de Bruyn 94Dirk Erasmus wheezed out a vas-trap on his concertina.
1935 H.C. Bosman Mafeking Rd (1969) 36No Bushveld dance was complete without Manie Kruger’s concertina. When he played a vastrap you couldn’t keep your feet still.
1944 M. de B. Nesbitt Rd to Avalon 114The band is playing a lively ‘vastrap’.
1970 L.G. Green Giant in Hiding 105You remember the candle light, the vastrap music.
1979 Fair Lady 28 Mar. 73We listened to the music of the sertao: sometimes it has a Mexican lilt, at other times it’s not unlike boeremusiek, with a spirited vastrap on the accordion.
1980 D.B. Coplan Urbanization of African Performing Arts. 75The latter (sc. the Basotho) were by no means immune to the Afrikaans vastrap rhythms.
1989 [see marabi sense 1].
2. A country dancing-party; sheepskin; veldskoen noun sense 2 a. Cf. opskop sense a.
1945 Outspan 20 July 37When he went back to the U.S.A. he said that he would come back if we could guarantee to fix him a real ‘vastrap’.
1949 L.G. Green In Land of Afternoon 167A country dance is often referred to as a vastrap or a velskoen...Many tunes heard at a vastrap are nameless, for they are composed on the farms by the players themselves.
1980 A.J. Blignaut Dead End Rd 94He’s gay when it’s played on the concertina at a vastrap.
A fast dance similar to the quickstep, danced (in the Afrikaans community) to the accompaniment of a type of boeremusiek (sense 1). Also vastrappiesee -ie, and attributive.
The style of music played to accompany this dance; a piece of music in this style. Also attributive.
A country dancing-party; sheepskin; veldskoennoun2 a.

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19131991

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Afrikaans
Dutch
vasbyt, verb intransitivev.vastrap, verb intransitivev.
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