Hottentot

English Etymology Borrowed from en nl Hottentot, its first known use in Dutch being in the 1650s. The third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary concluded in 2008 that hottentot came into English in the seventeenth century. But it finds that no definitive etymology of Dutch hottentot can so far be given: A very large number of different etymologies for the name have been suggested ... The most frequently repeated suggestion ... is that the word was a spec. use of a formally identical Dutch word meaning ‘stammerer, stutterer’, which came to be applied to the Khoekhoe and San people on account of the clicks characteristic of their languages. However, evidence for the earlier general use appears to be lacking. Another frequent suggestion is that the people were so named after one or more words which early European visitors to southern Africa heard in chants accompanying dances of the Khoekhoe or San ... but the alleged chant is rendered in different ways in different 17th-cent. sources, and some of the accounts may be based on hearsay rather than first-hand knowledge."Hottentot, n. and adj." OED Online, Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. Nienaber, 'The origin of the name “Hottentot” ', African Studies, 22:2 (1963), 65-90, DOI|10.1080/00020186308707174. It does seem clear, however, that hottentot was an exonym, that is, not the Khoikhoi's own name for themselves but rather a foreign term applied to them. Noun en archaic now offensive A member of the Khoekhoe group of peoples. 1798-1801, Lady Ann Barnard, Letters and Journals I was told that the Hottentots were uncommonly ugly and disgusting, but I do not think them so bad. Their features are small and their cheekbones immense, but they have a kind expression and countenance. en 2014 Jirō Tanaka The Bushmen: A Half-century Chronicle of Transformations in Hunter-gatherer Life and Ecology Apollo Books 9781920901660 2 They were called "Bushmen" because they led a nomadic life based on hunting and gathering in bushveld. The first written appearance of the Khoisan people, represented by the Bushmen and the Hottentots, dates back to the tenth century. en archaic loosely now offensive A member of the broader Khoisan group of peoples. en 1978 Patricia Storrar Portrait of Plettenberg Bay The Hottentots (Khoisan peoples) once an independent nation but whose simple tribal system had disintegrated rapidly as they were relentlessly displaced from their traditional grazing grounds and driven deep into the still uninhabited interior en 2007 Frontiers The Hottentots (Khoisan) of either sex, young and old, who were in the boor's service, always choose to sleep in the fireplace. en 2012 Richard Elphick The Equality of Believers: Protestant Missionaries and the Racial Politics of South Africa University of Virginia Press 9780813932736 The Dutch colonists in this frontier district, two years after an uprising of the Khoisan (“Hottentots”), were wary of the newly installed British regime at the Cape of Good Hope. en 2014 Patrick Brantlinger Dark Vanishings: Discourse on the Extinction of Primitive Races, 1800–1930 Cornell University Press 9780801468674 First, in 1828, all legal disabilities on the free people of colour, particularly the Khoisan [Hottentots], were removed by Ordinance 50. Synonyms person en Khoekhoe, en Khoikhoi, en Khoi Derived terms en Hottentot cherry Hottentot fig Hottentot teal Derived terms en Hottentot apron Hottentot bread Hottentot cabbage, Hottentot's cabbage (Trachandra genus) Hottentot's cherry en Hottentot fig, Hottentot's fig (Carpobrotus edulis species, formerly Mesembryanthemum edulus species) Hottentot god,Hottentot's god Hottentots Holland Mountains Translations a member of the Khoekhoe people Khoekhoe Afrikaans: af Hotnot Czech: cs Hotentot m Dutch: nl Hottentot m Finnish: fi hottentotti German: de Hottentotte m, de Hottentottin f Italian: it ottentotto m, it ottentotta f Latin: in the plural la Hottentotti m Russian: ru готтенто́т m Spanish: es hotentote m fish of the genus Pachymetopon Proper noun The language of the Khoekhoe, remarkable for its clicks. en en Hottentot#Adjective language Khoekhoe 157–158 157 Ive tried her with every possible sort of sound that a human being can make— Continental dialects, African dialects, Hottentot clicks, things it took me years to get hold of; and she picks them up like a shot, right away, as if she had been at it all her life. Derived terms en Hottentotese Hottentotism Translations language of the Khoekhoe Khoekhoe Finnish: fi khoi German: de Hottentottisch n, de hottentottische Sprache f Italian: it ottentotto m Spanish: es hotentote m See also Khoikhoi Sparidae Pachymetopon References Webster's International Dictionary 1902. Jean Bradford: A dictionary of South African English: Oxford 1978. en Languages Dutch Alternative forms nl Hottento obsolete Etymology Likely formed in reference to the click sounds of Khoekhoe. Already attested in Van Riebeeck's journal in 1652. Pronunciation nl /ˈɦɔ.tə(n)ˌtɔt/ nl Nl-Hottentot.ogg nl Hot ten tot Noun m -en + nl now offensive a Khoekhoe person, a member of the native people of southwestern Africa from mid 17th c. nl Khoi Khoikhoi Synonyms nl Khoikhoi Derived terms nl hottentottaling nl Hottentottententoonstelling nl hottentottententententoonstelling nl Hottentottin Descendants af Hotnot en Hottentot 1