apartheid

Etymology

It is borrowed from Afrikaans apartheid (“separateness”),^[2][3][4][5] formed from Dutch apart (“separate”) and the suffix -heid,^[6][7][8][4] which corresponds to -hood.^[9][10][11] The Dutch adverb is from French à part, the source of English apart.^{[9][5][6][10]} The OED says the Afrikaans word, meaning separateness, either comes from or was formed like Dutch apartheid, recorded from 1895.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The South African policy of racial segregation: 1944, in a speech of D. F. Malan quoted in the Star, according to the Dictionary of South African English;^[12] the OED and Barnhart date it to 1947.^[2][3][9]

Semantic evolution

In Afrikaans the word was used from 1929 in a missionary context, for the idea of keeping traditional African cultures separate from those of the white settlers rather than assimilating them;^[2][3][4] by 1943 it meant racial segregation with discrimination against non-white people, as opposed to integration.^[2] It entered English in the 1940s,^[4][8] and the policy itself, that of the National Party government,^[12] began officially in 1948.^[9] The official English synonym separate development dates from 1955.^[9] From 1952 the word was applied to any similar official system of racial segregation or discrimination,^[2] while from 1949 it was used more loosely to any separation or isolation, often with a word naming the kind, as in cultural apartheid.^[2][5][7]

Timeline

• 1929 – Afrikaans apartheid, in a missionary context.^[2][3]
• 1944 – the National Party's policy of racial segregation, in South African English.^[12]
• 1947 – first record in the OED.^[2][5][3]
• 1949 – any separation or segregation, in extended use.^[2]
• 1952 – any similar system of racial segregation outside South Africa.^[2]
• 1955 – separate development, the official English synonym.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The official policy of racial segregation and discrimination against non-white people in South Africa from 1948 until the early 1990s.^[13][2][5]
2. Any similar official system of racial segregation or discrimination.^[2][7]
3. Separation or isolation in general: a kind of social apartheid between the two villages.^[5][2][7]

Word family

• petty apartheid

Related words

• apart
• -hood
• separate development
• segregation

Usage notes

During the apartheid years South Africans punned on the word with apart-hate and departheid.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles, Dictionary Unit for South African English, https://dsae.co.za
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins