handlanger
Appearance
See also: Handlanger
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from Afrikaans handlanger (“assistant, helper”), from Dutch handlanger (“accomplice, henchman; assistant, helper”), analyzable as hand (“hand”) + langen (“to hand over or pass to”) + -er (“-er”, agent suffix) (in the sense of someone who puts things into another person's hands), from German Handlanger (“handyman; henchman”), from Hand (“hand”) + langen (“to hand over, to give; to reach for something”) + -er (“-er”, agent suffix).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈhændˌlæŋə/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- Hyphenation: hand‧lang‧er
Noun
[edit]handlanger (plural handlangers)
- (South Africa) An unskilled assistant to an artisan.
- 1976, Het Suid Western:
- […] building himself brick by brick, with his wife as his only handlanger.
- (South Africa, figuratively) An aide, an assistant.
- 2006, Richard Calland, Anatomy of South Africa: Who Holds the Power?, Cape Town: Zebra Press, →ISBN, page 177:
- [E]very political leader has a handlanger. Like a toddler with a security blanket, the political handlanger is a necessary sop and sponge for all the tension that goes with the job. And there is nothing either disreputable or degrading about the role. Politics can be spiteful and demanding; the handlanger is the trusted confidant, the one person whom the leader can sound out, seek counsel from and trust.
- 2016 March 17, Judith February, “Which colour pill will the ANC choose?”, in Daily Maverick[1], archived from the original on 11 April 2016:
- The time for talk truly is over now. The ANC will have to do the necessary, find its backbone and rein in [Jacob] Zuma, his cronies and their handlangers to avert an economic crisis happening on its watch.
- Alternative letter-case form of Handlanger.
Translations
[edit]unskilled assistant to an artisan
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References
[edit]- Jean Branford (1978) A Dictionary of South African English, Cape Town, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.
Further reading
[edit]Afrikaans
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Dutch handlanger, from German Handlanger.
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio: (file)
Noun
[edit]handlanger (plural handlangers, diminutive handlangertjie)
- assistant, helper (one who aids)
- henchman, accomplice (one who is an enabler or accessory to a crime)
Descendants
[edit]- → English: handlanger
Dutch
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Borrowed from German Handlanger. Equivalent to hand + langen + -er.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]handlanger m (plural handlangers, diminutive handlangertje n)
- accomplice, henchman (one who assists in criminal or unethical activity)
- (now chiefly Suriname or Zeeland, otherwise dated) assistant; helper
- 2015 March 13, Wout Bareman, “Waarom Rubens wel en Dirk de Witte niet”, in Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant, page 28:
- De Witte ontpopte zich als een handlanger van het Belgische verzet.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Descendants
[edit]- Afrikaans: handlanger
- → English: handlanger
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