bakkie

See also: Bakkie

English

WOTD – 16 December 2021

Etymology

A bakkie (sense 2) being used by an informal street vendor in South Africa to sell snoek (a type of fish).

Borrowed from Afrikaans bakkie, and then either:

• from Northern Dutch bakkie (informal), from Dutch bakje (“container; drinking vessel; (archaic) carriage for passengers”), from bak (“container; drinking vessel; vehicle; part of a vehicle for carrying loads; part of a carriage for carrying passengers”) (see further at that entry) + -je (diminutive suffix); or
• from Afrikaans bak (“container; part of a vehicle for carrying loads”) (from Dutch bak; see above) + -ie (diminutive suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, General South African) IPA^(key): /ˈbæki/, /ˈbʌ-/

• Audio (General South African)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æki, -ʌki
• Hyphenation: bak‧kie
• Homophone: baccy

Noun

bakkie (plural bakkies) (Namibia, South Africa)

1. A small bowl or container, sometimes with a cover such as a Tupperware container. [from late 19th c.]
   • 1901 October 11, F. V. Corbett, “Report on Irrigation in Natal”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume IV, number 16, Pietermaritzburg: The Times Printing and Publishing Company, OCLC 18228020, paragraph 21, page 492, column 2:

     The "Noria" pump is a bucket-and-chain arrangement, well known, I believe, in the Cape Colony as the "bakkies" pump; it is very effective for it lifts from 10 feet to 30 feet.

   • 2007, Bree O’Mara, Home Affairs, Johannesburg, Gauteng: 30°South Publishers, →ISBN, page 148:

     [S]he passed around a bakkie of home-made chocolate biscuits to all the girls.

2. (road transport) A small pick-up truck or ute, generally open and sometimes fitted with a removable canopy, but distinct from an enclosed van and a large truck. [from mid 20th c.]

Translations

small bowl or container

small pick-up truck or ute

• Afrikaans: bakkie (af)

• German: Bakkie (de) m

Further reading

• bakkie (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Jean Branford, editor (1978), “bakkie”, in A Dictionary of South African English, Cape Town, Western Cape: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.
• “bakkie”, in Double-tongued Word Wrester‎^[1], 11 June 2004, archived from the original on 28 July 2005.

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Afrikaans

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈba.ki/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

bakkie (plural bakkies)

1. A bakkie (pick-up truck or ute)
2. Diminutive of bak

Descendants

• → English: bakkie

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɑ.ki/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

bakkie n (plural bakkies)

1. (Netherlands, colloquial) Alternative form of bakje.