Voortrekker, adjective and & noun

Forms:
Voertrekker, VoortrekerShow more Also Voertrekker, Voortreker, and Englished forms Fore-tracker, Fore-treker, Fore-trekker, often with small initial.
Origin:
Afrikaans, DutchShow more Afrikaans, from Dutch voor advance, fore + trekken to travel, migrate, + agential suffix -er.
A. adjective Of or pertaining to the Voortrekkers (see sense B 1).
Note:
Some quotations might reflect attributive uses of the noun.
1872 Queenstown Free Press 27 Sept. (Pettman)Oom Koos will probably once again be our voortrekker leader.
1882 C.L. Norris-Newman With Boers in Tvl 77The large majority of the Volksraad were of the old ‘Voortrekker’ stamp, and did not in any way wish to again come under British rule.
1895 J.G. Millais Breath from Veldt (1899) 61The ‘voor-trekker’ Dutchmen.
1899 A. Werner Captain of Locusts 34He was possessed to the full of the old voortrekker spirit, and loathed the sight of the smoke from a neighbour’s chimney.
1924 L. Cohen Reminisc. of Jhb. 69The old man, soured by memories of the Great Trek period, could not forget those boyish days of bitter hardship, when to escape from the sight of the Rooinek, the Voor-trekker Boers — he a Voor-looper amongst them — penetrated far north..in search of a magic region where they could live their simple lives in their own way.
1934 B.I. Buchanan Pioneer Days 3During the long arduous trek from the Cape the Voortrekker women had stood behind parked wagons, loading the guns with which their men must repulse the Native impis.
1941 C.W. De Kiewiet Hist. of S. Afr. 52Like the Fathers of the American Constitution, the Voortrekker leaders came to be considered the founders of modern South Africa.
1943 J. Burger Black Man’s Burden 239The revival of Voortrekker beards, dress, games, songs, and dances [etc.]..were part of a gigantic Nationalist campaign for political purposes.
1960 G. Lister Reminisc. 4An old-fashioned Voortrekker type waggon with dished wheels.
1963 B. Modisane Blame Me on Hist. (1986) 17Like America, South Africa has a frontier or voortrekker mentality, a primitive throw-back to the pioneering era.
1971 Sunday Times 19 Dec. 5Traditional Voortrekker costumes were seen everywhere mingling with safari suits and mini dresses.
1981 S. Afr. Panorama July 46The finest private collection of old Cape Dutch and Voortrekker-period furniture in South Africa.
1990 Sunday Times 11 Feb. 3The irate band, in traditional Voortrekker dress, claimed..Afrikaner culture was being eroded.
B. noun
1. In historical contexts. A member of one of numerous groups of Dutch-speaking people who migrated by wagon from the Cape Colony into the interior from 1836 onwards, in order to live beyond the boundaries of British rule; emigrant noun; emigrant Boer, see emigrant adjective; Great Trekker, see Great Trek; trek boer sense (b), see trek noun sense 12 b; trekker sense 1 a; also called voorloper (sense 2).
1873 F. Boyle To Cape for Diamonds 32We now come to that great epoch of South African history — the exodus of the Voor-trekers, or Fore-trackers.
1876 Cape Monthly Mag. XIII. Sept. 180 (title)The Journal of a Voor-Trekker.
1881 E. London Daily Dispatch & Frontier Advertiser 26 Jan. (Suppl.) 2The President of the discontented farmers..is one of the ‘voortrekkers,’ or original emigrants from the Old Colony, who trecked north to the Vaal river.
1882 C. Du Val With Show through Sn Afr. I. 203Through the parched plains of what is now the Orange Free State, over the snow-clad mountains of the Drakensburg..came the dauntless ‘Voortrekkers’, with their waggons, their cattle, their ‘vrouws’, their ‘kinderen’, and their household belongings.
1893 F.C. Selous Trav. & Adventure 7From the lips of some of the old ‘voortrekkers’ I heard the story of the wrongs they suffered under the British administration of the Cape Colony, which, culminating in the emancipation of the slaves,..plunged the whole country into grief and dismay.
1900 H.C. Hillegas Oom Paul’s People 37The first ‘trekking’ party, or the ‘Voortrekkers,’ consisted of about two hundred persons under the leadership of Andries Hendrik Potgieter.
1926 G.E. Cory Diary of Francis Owen 145Not only were there many sufferers in the far away Colesberg, but even the Boer voortrekkers in Natal were smitten.
c1936 S. & E. Afr. Yr Bk & Guide 225The voortrekkers, although they were always known as Boers or farmers,..were, in the first instance, mainly hunters, eating the game they shot and trading the skins and horns.
1943 J. Burger Black Man’s Burden 19The Voortrekkers envisaged an independent republican State with plenty of land and no nonsense about equality between black and white.
1955 D.L. Hobman Olive Schreiner 112These voortrekkers or pioneers moved in ox-wagons which were their homes, and also served as encampments whenever they had to defend themselves against tribal attacks.
1973 J. Meintjes Voortrekkers 13The emigrants..never referred to themselves as Voortrekkers — that came much later — but as emigrant farmers.
1987 Fair Lady 18 Feb. 103 (letter)I’ve had a decent education (even if it was full of Praise-the-Voortrekkers).
1988 Star 21 Jan. 9Voortrekkers saw the execution of Piet Retief as an act of utmost treachery on the part of Dingaan, whereas Zulus saw voortrekkers as scheming land-grabbers who were out to rob them of their land.
1992 P.-D. Uys in South 27 Feb. 24If everything we reject as Eurocentric ends up on the floor, we will have more mountains to cross than those damn Voortrekkers who started all the trouble.
2. transferred sense, and figurative.
a. A member of an Afrikaner youth movement similar to the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides; in the plural, this movement; its members collectively. Also attributive.
1932 Grocott’s Daily Mail 5 Apr. 2A resolution ‘that full support be given to the Voortrekker movement, which should seriously be considered to replace the cadet movement,’ was referred back to the committee.
1934 A.J. Barnouw Lang. & Race Problems 50This scheme of racial segregation of youth is extended to outside activities. Young Afrikaners are being urged to join the Voortrekkers movement, which has been organized by Mr. J. de V. Hees of Bloemfontein as a Nationalist rival of the Boy Scouts.
1946 Forum 7 Dec. 4Dr. K.W. Heese..explained at a Voortrekker (Boy Scout) function at Worcester that he had everywhere noticed a slackening in enthusiasm and interest.
1960 E.G. Malherbe in H. Spottiswoode S. Afr.: Rd Ahead 148The Voortrekkers hived off from the Boy Scouts, and the Noodhulpliga hived off from the Red Cross, and latterly the Rapportryers are going to break away from Rotary.
1975 Daily Dispatch 30 Apr. 14An appeal to Boy Scouts, Voortrekkers and the schools to assist in the work of clearing the countryside and farms of the cruel devices poachers use.
1981 Rand Daily Mail 29 Sept. 14I note that the 50th anniversary of the Voortrekker movement is to be marked by the issue of a special postage stamp. In the Western world this country is, as far as I know, the only one, apart from the Boy Scout movement.., which has a parallel, but politically and racially oriented, youth movement.
1986 P. Le Roux in Burman & Reynolds Growing Up 189I was incensed when an English friend proclaimed that Voortrekkers (the Afrikaner Nationalist answer to the Boy Scout movement) were similar to the Hitler Youth movement.
1987 Sunday Times 23 Aug. 2According to our constitution, no Voortrekker is allowed to attend any kind of political gathering in uniform.
1988 Spiegel & Boonzaier in Boonzaier & Sharp S. Afr. Keywords 55Somewhat ironically, the ‘traditional’ British Boy Scouts were used as the model for the Voortrekker youth movement, established during the Depression years.
1993 [see Great Trek sense 2].
b. A pioneer.
1949 J.S. Franklin This Union 211It is sheer accident that the ‘Voortrekkers’ of the seas and oceans of the world were Portuguese, Spaniards, Hollanders and Englishmen.
1951 H. Davies Great S. Afr. Christians 40There is no reason why this Voortrekker of God’s Kingdom should not be widely honoured.
1951 H. Davies Great S. Afr. Christians 48He was a Voortrekker of the Spirit.
1968 Green Bay Tree (pamphlet) p.xxiiiToday’s Afrikaner ‘industrial voortrekkers’, driving in Mercedes instead of ox-wagons.
1980 Sunday Times 14 Sept. 11They are descendants of the black Voortrekkers.
1987 Rhodeo (Rhodes Univ.) May 2To UDF supporters on the campuses we say: History is on your side. You are the new Voortrekkers with integrity and vision to build bridges into the future.
Of or pertaining to the Voortrekkers (see sense B 1).
A member of one of numerous groups of Dutch-speaking people who migrated by wagon from the Cape Colony into the interior from 1836 onwards, in order to live beyond the boundaries of British rule; emigrant noun; emigrant Boer, see emigrant adjective; Great Trekker, see Great Trek; trek boer sense (b), see trek noun sense 12 b; trekker sense 1 a; also called voorloper (sense 2).
A member of an Afrikaner youth movement similar to the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides; in the plural, this movement; its members collectively. Also attributive.
A pioneer.
Derivatives:
Hence voortrekking  adjective.
1873 F. Boyle To Cape for Diamonds 115These fore-treking tradesmen.
1965 W. Plomer Turbott Wolfe 74Aucampstroom was an outpost of the voortrekking Dutch.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

18721992

Derivatives