Rooinek
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 An Englishman, or a South African that speaks English as opposed to Afrikaans. South-Africa, derogatory, ethnic, slur
"Again and again the surprise was effected, not by the nation of hunters, but by those rooineks whose want of cunning and of veld-craft had for so long been a subject of derision and merriment."
Example
More examples"Again and again the surprise was effected, not by the nation of hunters, but by those rooineks whose want of cunning and of veld-craft had for so long been a subject of derision and merriment."
Etymology
From Afrikaans rooinek, from rooi (“red”) + nek (“neck”). The term refers to South Africans of British descent, who were perceived by Afrikaners to wear headgear (such as solar topees or no hat at all) which was inadequate in protecting them from sunburn, and thus caused them to have red necks. Other theories include the term being a reference to the red collars of 19th-century British military uniforms or to the red markings that British-South African farmers painted on their imported merino sheep. Compare redneck.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.