Crossword clues for kaffir
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Kaffir \Kaf"fir\ (k[a^]f"f[~e]r), Kafir \Ka"fir\ (k[aum]"f[~e]r), n. [Ar. k[=a]fir infidel, pagan, fr. kafara to be skeptical in religious matters; -- a name given to certain infidel races by the Mohammedans. Cf. Giaour.]
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(Ethnol.)
One of a race which, with the Hottentots and Bushmen, inhabit South Africa. They inhabit the country north of Cape Colony, the name being now specifically applied to the tribes living between Cape Colony and Natal, including the Ponda, Xosa, and Tembu; but the Zulus of Natal are true Kaffirs.
One of a race inhabiting Kafiristan in Central Asia.
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Any Black African; -- a disparaging and offensive term used by white South Africans. [South Africa]
Syn: kaffir, caffer, caffre.
Kaffir corn (Bot.), a Cape Colony name for Indian millet.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1790, from Arabic kafir "unbeliever, infidel, impious wretch," with a literal sense of "one who does not admit the blessings of God," from kafara "to cover up, conceal, deny, blot out." Technically, "non-Muslim," but in Ottoman times it came to be used almost exclusively for "Christian." Early English missionaries used it as an equivalent of "heathen" to refer to Bantus in South Africa (1792), from which use it came generally to mean "South African black" regardless of ethnicity, and to be a term of abuse since at least 1934.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context obsolete English) (non-gloss definition: A blanket term for various native peoples of southern Africa.) 2 (context South Africa offensive English) A black person. 3 A non-believer.
WordNet
n. important for human and animal food; growth habit and stem form similar to Indian corn but having sawtooth-edged leaves [syn: great millet, kafir corn, kaffir corn, Sorghum bicolor]
an offensive term for any Black African [syn: kafir, caffer, caffre]
Wikipedia
The word is derived from the Arabic term kafir (meaning " disbeliever"), which originally had the meaning "one without religion".
The word kaffir (also spelt kaffer) is a term used in South Africa to refer to a black person. Now widely considered an offensive ethnic slur, it was formerly considered by whites to be a neutral term for South African blacks.
Arab Traders adopted the term to refer to non-Muslim peoples. Variations of the word were used in English, Dutch, and, later, in Afrikaans, from the 17th century to the early 20th century as a general term for several different peoples of Southern Africa. In Portuguese, in French and in Spanish, the equivalent cafre was used. The term acquired a distinctly derogatory meaning in the context of South African history, especially during the Apartheid era. In Afrikaans, the term is more commonly spelled kaffer.
In South Africa today, the term is regarded as highly racially offensive, in the same way as nigger in the United States and other English-speaking countries. It is seldom used as an isolated insult, but rather is used systematically by openly racist individuals when talking about black people, and as such was very common in the apartheid era. Use of the word has been actionable in South African courts since at least 1976 under the offense of crimen injuria: "the unlawful, intentional and serious violation of the dignity of another".
Kaffir and similar may refer to:
- Kafir, an Arabic term used by Muslims to describe a subset of society who have read and rejected the message of the Qur'an. Literally, it is used to label those that were once believers of the Qur'an but have since found another religion, for example one who was once Muslim and now is Christian or Jewish are called Kafirs.
- Sunbeam Kaffir, an engine built by the Sunbeam car company
- Kefir or Kephir, a fermented milk drink from the Caucasus region
- African wildcat, formerly known as the Kaffir cat
Usage examples of "kaffir".
Besides these primitive races there are the dark-skinned negroids of Bantu stock, commonly known in their tribal groups as Kaffirs, Zulu, Bechuana and Damara, which are again subdivided into many lesser groups.
Those tribes having for their customs the practice of compound major mutilations are the Fiji Islanders, Sandwich Islanders, Tahitians, Tongans, Samoans, Javanese, Sumatrans, natives of Malagasy, Hottentots, Damaras, Bechuanas, Kaffirs, the Congo people, the Coast Negroes, Inland Negroes, Dahomeans, Ashantees, Fulahs, Abyssinians, Arabs, and Dakotas.
This man was a Cape Colony Kaffir, a Fingo I think, with a touch of Hottentot in him.
They compared themselves to the Hebrews marching from their land of bondage in Egypt, while the Kaffirs in the parallel filled the places of the Canaanites and Jebusites and other tribes that were unfortunate enough to stand in their way.
I called out to Leblanc and the Kaffirs not to shoot till I did, for I knew that they were poor marksmen and that much depended upon our first volley being effective.
As regards my claims against the said cursed Government because of the loss brought on me by the Quabie Kaffirs, it will not acknowledge them, saying that the attack was caused by the Frenchman Leblanc, one of my household.
Imagine a semi-communistic settlement set close to the borders of Rhodesia, in which thousands of Kaffirs passed a life analogous to that passed by the Indians of the missions -- cared for and fed by the community, looked after in every smallest particular of their lives -- and what a flood of calumny would be let loose upon the unfortunate devisers of the scheme!
The roads, however, or rather the game tracks and Kaffir paths which we followed, were terrible, for with the single exception of that of Pereira for part of the distance, no wagon had ever gone over them before.
Dingaan confided nothing to me, except that some Kaffir witch-doctor, who is named Zikali, a man I never saw, had told him that he must not kill an Englishman, and therefore he wished to spare me, although one of your people, Hernan Pereira, had whispered to him that I ought to be killed.
The way he brushed his hair front and back made it look square, but I saw that it was really round, the roundest head I have ever seen except in a Kaffir.
Pereira answered that he did not understand me to propose a shooting match at Kaffirs charging with assegais, but at something else--he knew not what.
There seems to be no possible excuse for the repeated murders of coloured men by the Boers, as they had themselves from the beginning of the war used their Kaffirs for every purpose short of actually fighting.
Waking up towards evening, he found that his horse had gone, and at once jumped to the conclusion that it had been stolen by Kaffirs, although in truth the animal had but strolled over a ridge in search of grass.
Running hither and thither to seek it, he presently crossed this ridge and met the horse, apparently being led away by two of the Red Kaffirs, who, as was usual, were armed with assegais.
Missie Marie--think of what the Red Kaffirs will do with Missie Marie when their blood is up.