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:[1]

  • 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)[2] + -ie (diminutive suffix).[3]

Pronunciation

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, 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

References
  1. “bakkie, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2021; “bakkie, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. “bakkie, n.”, in Dictionary of South African English, Makhanda, Eastern Cape: Dictionary Unit for South African English, 1996–2024.
  3. “-ie, suffix”, in Dictionary of South African English, Makhanda, Eastern Cape: Dictionary Unit for South African English, 1996–2024.

Further reading

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

Dutch

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈbɑ.ki/
  • Audio(file)

Noun

bakkie n (plural bakkies)

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