Dictionary

hairyback en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From hairy + back.

Meanings

1. A gastrotrich.
2. (South-Africa, derogatory, ethnic, offensive, slang, slur) A white Afrikaner.
   • I couldn't care that the ous call me rooinek and sometimes whiterat because of my hair and face. At least I am not a hairyback I tell them. 1975, Sheila Roberts, Outside Life's Feast: Short Stories, Johannesburg: Ad. Donker, →ISBN, page 27:
   • A mistake which is often made by our South African militants is to assume that we are cleverer than the police, that we can out-manoeuvre the 'hairybacks' and the 'rock spiders'[…] 1986, Breyten Breytenbach, The true confessions of an albino terrorist, page 344:
   • […]the tyranny of the rockspiders, crunchies, hairybacks, ropes, and bloody Dutchmen. Those were the names by which we referred to Afrikaners. 1990, Rian Malan, My Traitor's Heart: Blood and Bad Dreams, page 54:

Forms