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Kafir   Listen
noun
Kafir, Kaffir  n.  
1.
(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)
2.
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.


kafir  n.  Same as Kaffir. (South Africa)
Synonyms: kaffir, caffer, caffre.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Kafir" Quotes from Famous Books



... tested by the actual visit of Europeans to the country. The consequence was that a sort of mystery surrounded Kafiristan,—so much so that Colonel Yule, when discussing an interesting paper by Colonel Tanner, on a visit he made to the borders of the Kafir country three years ago, said that when Kafiristan was visited and explored the Royal Geographical Society might close the doors, because there would be no more new work to be done. The veil had at last been drawn aside. It might be asked why ...
— Memoir of William Watts McNair • J. E. Howard
... colony, traditionally said to have been founded by Dionysus. The Koh-i-Mor has been identified as the Meros of Arrian's history—the three-peaked mountain from which the god issued. It is also interesting to find that a section of the Kafir community of Kamdesh still claim the same Greek origin as did the Nysaeans; still chant hymns to the god who sprang from Gir Nysa (the mountain of Nysa); whilst they maintain that they originally migrated from the Swat country to their present habitat in the lower Bashgol. ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 - "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" • Various
... in question, and that, when properly approached, he will be disposed to give his worshipers the assistance desired. The casting of lots and similar random procedures have been common methods of divination the world over. The African Kafir diviner detects criminals by the fall of small objects used as dice. The Ashanti discover future events by the figures formed when palm wine is thrown on the ground, and from the nature of the numbers, whether even or odd, when ...
— Introduction to the History of Religions - Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV • Crawford Howell Toy
... utter contempt. The Kohistanees despitefully used Shahbaz Khan, and when a brother of Yakoub Khan was sent to use his influence in favour of the worried and threatened governor, he was reviled as a 'Kafir' and a 'Feringhee,' and ordered peremptorily back to Sherpur if he had any regard for his life. Sirdar Wali Mahomed, the governor-nominate to the remote Turkestan, found pretext after pretext for delaying to proceed to take up ...
— The Afghan Wars 1839-42 and 1878-80 • Archibald Forbes
... [FN470] Arab. "Kafir" a Koranic word meaning Infidel, the active participle of Kufr Infidelity i.e. rejecting the mission of Mohammed. It is insulting and in Turkish has been degraded to "Giaour." Here it means black, as Hafiz of Shiraz terms a cheek mole ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton


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