Hottentot
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Dutch 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.[1]
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
Hottentot (plural Hottentots)
- (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.
- 1798-1801, Lady Ann Barnard, Letters and Journals
- Any of several fish of the genus Lua error in Module:taxlink at line 68: Parameter "noshow" is not used by this template., in the family Sparidae.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
|
Derived terms
- Hottentot apron
- Hottentot's bread
- Hottentot cabbage, Hottentot's cabbage (Lua error in Module:taxlink at line 68: Parameter "noshow" is not used by this template.)
- Hottentot cherry(Please check if this is already defined at target. Replace
{{vern}}
with a regular link if already defined. Add novern=1 if not defined.) - Hottentot fig, Hottentot's fig (Lua error in Module:taxlink at line 68: Parameter "noshow" is not used by this template., formerly Lua error in Module:taxlink at line 68: Parameter "noshow" is not used by this template.)
- Hottentot god, Hottentot's god
- Hottentot's Holland Range
Proper noun
Hottentot
- The language of the Khoekhoe, remarkable for its clicks.
- 1913, George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion
- "I have tried her with every sort of sound that a human being can make...Hottentot clicks, things it took me years to get hold of."
- 1913, George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
|
See also
Khoikhoi on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Sparidae on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Pachymetopon on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
References
- Webster's International Dictionary 1902.
- Jean Bradford: A dictionary of South African English: Oxford 1978.
- ^ "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.
Dutch
Alternative forms
- Hottento (obsolete)
Etymology
Likely formed in reference to the click sounds of Khoekhoe. Already attested in Van Riebeeck's journal in 1652.
Pronunciation
Noun
Hottentot m (plural Hottentotten, diminutive Hottentotje n)
- (now offensive) A Khoekhoe person, a member of the native people of southwestern Africa. [from mid 17th c.]
Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
- English terms borrowed from Dutch
- English terms derived from Dutch
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with archaic senses
- English offensive terms
- English proper nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- en:Languages
- Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch nouns
- Dutch nouns with plural in -en
- Dutch masculine nouns
- Dutch offensive terms