Glossary of Terms
Almagtige Almighty
Apartheid a policy of forced separation of races
Astrophysicist the branch of astronomy concerned with the properties of stars
baasskap boss-ship or domination; where the white man must automatically be in charge
Baster literally, a bastard—a ‘half-breed’—of mixed race
bakkie a pickup truck
bedonered crazed with anger
belaglik laughable
bekommer worry or troubles oneself over
Burgemeester Mayor
besete infected
bliksemse (derogatory) bloody
bobbejaan baboon
boere farmer—(derogatory) Afrikaner whites
boesman / bushmen see san and khoisan
boetie brother or friend
bokkie a fawn, term of endearment for a female, a plaything
braai barbeque
Broederbond brotherhood, an officially abandoned secret society devoted to furthering white Afrikaner influence
CERN European organization for fundamental nuclear research
coolie an unskilled native laborer from India’s south
dagga marijuana
dankie thank you
diaken deacon
dief thief
Dominee a clergyman, a preacher, in the NGK or Dutch Reformed Church
donner to beat up / also, 'rascal'
donnerse ding damned or bloody thing
Doppers a member of the most conservative Afrikaner Church, which practises a strict version of Calvinism
dorp small village
duiwel devil
duiwelaanbidder devil-worshipper
eie own (people)
ek I
evolutionary anthropology the study of the evolution of human physiology and human behaviour
fantasties fantastic
fok / fokken fuck / fucking
gedoente contraption
gee give
gekry acquired
gemeente parish
gemeentelede parishoners
geraas noise
groot geraas big noise
haasbek toothless
Hadron Collider World's largest and most powerful particle accelerator (at CERN)
hemel heaven
hominid a primate of a family ( Hominidae ) that includes humans and fossil ancestors.
Homo Naledi A hominid sub-species found in 2013 in the Rising Star cave system of Maropeng, South Africa.
Hotnot (derogatory) coloured person, derived from Hottentot; used to refer to Khoi peoples.
Israel-Visie a collective term for a variety of conservative religious groups who aim to prove that they are direct descendants of Israel's chosen people
iron maiden medieval torture device—a coffin-like apparatus festooned with inward pointing spears to skewer a victim
ja yes
Jislaaik an exclamation similar to "Jeepers"
jou you or your
Kaffer (extremely derogatory) a black person
Kaffir-boetie (derogatory) a white person who speaks on behalf of blacks
kak shit or nonsense
kakpraathout a variety of wood used for bonfires but not for cooking meat due to noxious fumes that taint food.
Kardashev Scale Named after Russian physicist, Nikolai Kardashev, a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement, based on the amount of energy a civilization is able to utilize
khoisan a collective term for the Khoikhoi (Hottentot) and San (Bushmen) peoples (not black African see nguni) of southern Africa: see also Coloured, boesman/bushman, hotnot
klap hit or smack
klein small
kleinbaas small boss
klim climb
klomp lot of
kom come on
kont cunt
landdros magistrate.
larney posh
lelike ugly
lekker great and enjoyable
luister listen
ma mother
mal mad or insane
manne men
masjien machine
meme cultural analogues to genes; infectious ideas that self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective social pressures
meneer or Mnr. mister or Mr.
moffie (derogatory) queer, homosexual
momparas idiots or fools
Mother City Nickname for Cape Town
Munchausen Syndrome Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a mental illness and a form of child abuse. The caretaker of a child either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like the child is sick.
Nguni the black-African group of closely related Bantu language speakers, including Ndebele, Swazi, Xhosa, and Zulu
niks nothing
non sequitur a situation where the conclusion one is drawing does not logically follow from what is at issue
nooit weer never again
onbeskof immensely rude
Oom uncle
opskud get a move on
oens guys, fellows, boys or men
oupa grandfather
pa father
pro bono a free service
putch a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a system
realpolitik a perception of politics or principles based on practical rather than moral or ideological considerations
rooinek a foreigner, particularly an English speaking person
seun son or boy
SKA Square Kilometre Array (Radio Telescope)
skandaal scandal or scandalous
skelms crooks
sommer just
staan stand
stilte quiet
swart black
staan stand up
synod the governing body of the church
tannie aunt
tik methamphetamine
uitlanders outsiders or newcomers
vang catch
vark pig
veld bush or scrub, uncultivated land
verraaier turncoat
verdomde damned
voetsek get-lost, go, get away
volk peoples, culture
voortrekker Dutch-speaking people who migrated away from the Cape Colony from 1836 in order to live beyond British rule.
weer again
weg away
xenophobia fear of foreigners
Young Earth Creationist (also YEC) Christian sects who believe in a literal interpretation of the bible and a 6,000 year old earth
SAMPLE... The Praying Nun
Chapter 1
Cape Town, South Africa
April/Autumn, 1986
The object appears to be part of a large tooth, standing slightly proud out of the surrounding black conglomerate.
I’m under six metres of water with a scuba tank strapped to my back. That’s just twenty feet of depth in old money.
Conglomerate rock is the congealed detritus every shipwreck acquires in its grave, a bit of everything cemented together by corals and other sea life, turned to rock from age and chemical reaction with the salty water.
A dirty and yellowed bump the size of my knuckle, protruding above the coal-like sediment, caught my eye more than fifteen minutes ago. It looks to me like evidence of a large tooth hidden from view. I’ve been attempting to wrestle the whole chunk loose from the granite crevasse ever since.
Trouble is, I know I’m about to reach the end of my air supply.
Forty-five minutes is about what you get from a ten-litre aqualung of compressed air at this depth when you’re working hard.
You can eke out an hour if you don’t exert yourself. But I’ve been straining and heaving to loosen this football-sized chunk of black mass from the grip of the African continent, so the tank is sure to run dry a lot quicker.
Today’s conditions have pushed my breathing harder as well.
It’s achingly cold, but at least the fr
igid water has given us perfect viz. I can see through my mask out to maybe half the length of an Olympic swimming pool in distance. Across the sugar-white sand beyond this reef, another dark patch of rocky outcrop looms at the very edge of my visibility.
I have enough experience to know that I’m reaching the point when the air runs out. When it does, it will do so quickly. I’ll suddenly find that I must suck in the last few breaths to get anything at all.
“Come on!” I find myself growling into the mouthpiece of the demand valve as I pull on the lump with all my diminishing strength. The accompanying eruption of bubbles from my frustrated bellow boils out in front of my goggles, momentarily obscuring the crisp clean water.
And, here it comes!
It moves a finger’s width then locks again Ffffff…!! I fizz with irritation into the mouthpiece again.
But it’s loose. There’s wiggle room. Progress!
I test the play. It’s no longer attached, but it’s still wedged with frustrating determination somewhere in the crack between the granite boulders.
Calm down… I remind myself, emphasizing the admonishment by resting to examine the exposed piece of tooth again.
Lordy, but this is intriguing, I think as I stare more closely.
I’m an amateur, not yet twenty-one years old, and certainly no archaeologist, but that really looks to me like a tooth in the conglomerate rock.
A persistent piece of kelp washes in front of my mask and it makes me look around to see whether the kelp forest has changed its nature in the last half hour. Swell is pushing in fast and that means this site, so close inshore, will not be accessible in the coming days. This thought accelerates my heart rate with an urgency to get this extraction done.
What started as a curiosity at the beginning of this dive has grown into an obsession. Something about the intrigue of it is driving me beyond any evidence of intrinsic value—it sure isn’t gold.
No matter. I just have to know what this thing is.
I peer a little closer and push the kelp aside yet again. It’s definitely something organic… bone or tooth... and there’s another piece of it, I notice. Now that it’s loosened just that fraction from the grip that time has put on it, I can rotate it just enough to see that it appears to be larger than I first thought. About a finger’s length away from the original bump that grabbed my attention, I see more of it protruding, grinning at me through the clinging tar of conglomerate, teasing my appetite for wonder.
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