KAFFIR CORN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Kaffir corn

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noun

Kafir, Kaffir n.

(Ethnol.)

(a)

One of a race which, with the Hottentots and Bushmen, inhabit South Africa. They inhabit the country north of Cape Colony, the name being now specifically applied to the tribes living between Cape Colony and Natal, including the Ponda, Xosa, and Tembu; but the Zulus of Natal are true Kaffirs.

(b)

One of a race inhabiting Kafiristan in Central Asia. (Spelt also Caffre)

Any Black African; a disparaging and offensive term used by white South Africans. (South Africa)

Synonyms: kaffir, caffer, caffre.

Kaffir corn (Bot.), a Cape Colony name for Indian millet.

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Etymology of 'Kaffir corn'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Kaffir corn" Quotes from Famous Books

... covert coat. By his side rode ex-President Steyn, unarmed. The prisoners were fed as well as the Boers themselves, but that was badly, for they were nearly always short of food, and generally had only Kaffir corn, with occasional meat. One day a prisoner asked a field-cornet when they were going to get something to eat. "I don't care if you're a brass band," he said, "but give us some food." "Well, I'm very sorry," was the apologetic reply, "we've been trying ...

— In the Ranks of the C.I.V. • Erskine Childers

... the Guards continued in hot pursuit of the Boers without so much as once catching sight of them. Repeatedly, however, we scrambled through huge patches of Indian or Kaffir corn, enough, so to say, to feed an army, but all left to rot and perish uncut. It was one of the few evidences which just then greeted us that war was really abroad in the land, and that they were no mere autumn manoeuvres ...

— With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back • Edward P. Lowry