Zarp, noun

/zɑːp/
Forms:
Also Z.A.R.P., and with small initial.
Origin:
The letters used on a badge worn by the members of this police force, being the initial letters of Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (or, according to some sources, Rijdende) Politie South African Republic (or Mounted) Police. The force included both mounted and foot police.
historical
A member of the police force of the South African (Transvaal) Republic. Usually in the plural : in the singular, a collective term for the force as a whole.
1894 Standard & Diggers’ News in G.N. Van den Bergh Polisiediens in Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (1980) 161Submit to the tyrannic bonds of these Zarps? Not much. God save the Queen...Down with the Boers.
1896 Star 14 Oct. 4I had a conversation with a Zarp, stationed on Pretoria Bridge, and..he assured me that a diligent search was made of the Park nightly.
1929 H.A. Chilvers Out of Crucible 112There was a house to house search for these arms. In one case a body of miners persuaded weary Zarps to dig all day under the foundations of a cyanide tank for rifles.
[1934 N. Devitt Mem. of Magistrate 115The father had been a sergeant in the Z.A.R.P.]
1955 T.V. Bulpin Storm over Tvl 217The bulk of the personnel of the Republican Police Force, known as the Z.A.R.P.S. (Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek Polisie) consisted of rustics drawn from the country districts.
1969 A.A. Telford Jhb.: Some Sketches 13Gambling houses, though forbidden by law, flourished everywhere, some with sentries posted outside them to warn of the approach of the ‘Zarps’, as the police were called.
1977 R.J. Haines in R.J. Bouch Infantry in S. Afr. 1652–1976 25The ‘ZARPS’, the Police of the South African Republic, numbered about 1 400 at the outbreak of war.
1987 W. Steenkamp Blockhouse 16Whelan..had been in the Zarps, the republican police.
A member of the police force of the South African (Transvaal) Republic. Usually in the plural : in the singular, a collective term for the force as a whole.
Derivatives:
Hence Zarpine  adjective  rare, of this police force.
1895 Standard & Diggers’ News 23 Nov. 21Jan..resisted Zarpine authority, and even attempted to test the Zarpine probity by the bribe of a sixpence.
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18941987

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Zarpine

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ZAR, nounn.ZCC, nounn.
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