hairyback

English

Etymology

From hairy +‎ back.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

hairyback (plural hairybacks)

1. A gastrotrich.
2. (South Africa, slang, derogatory, offensive, ethnic slur) A white Afrikaner.
   • 1975, Sheila Roberts, Outside Life's Feast: Short Stories, Johannesburg: Ad. Donker, →ISBN, page 27:

     I couldn't care that the ous call me rooinek and sometimes whiterat because of my hair and face. At least I am not a hairyback I tell them.

   • 1986, Breyten Breytenbach, The true confessions of an albino terrorist, page 344:

     A mistake which is often made by our South African militants is to assume that we are cleverer than the police, that we can out-manoeuvre the 'hairybacks' and the 'rock spiders' […]

   • 1990, Rian Malan, My Traitor's Heart: Blood and Bad Dreams, page 54:

     […] the tyranny of the rockspiders, crunchies, hairybacks, ropes, and bloody Dutchmen. Those were the names by which we referred to Afrikaners.