Voortrekker, adjective and & noun
- Forms:
- Show 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Copyright © 2023 Dictionary Unit for South African English.