landdrost

English

Etymology

From South African Dutch landdrost, from land + drost.

Noun

landdrost (plural landdrosts)

1. (now historical) A type of magistrate in South Africa, abolished under the British in 1827.
   • 1979, André Brink, A Dry White Season, Vintage, published 1998, page 160:

     Remember the words of the young Bibault in the revolt against Van der Stel in 1706: ‘I shall not go. I am an Afrikaner and even if the landdrost kills me or puts me in jail I refuse to hold my tongue.’

   • 2020, Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 82:

     About ten years before this resistance movement the settlement comprised merely four houses, one of which was used by the landdrost.

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch landdrost. Equivalent to land +‎ drost.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɑn(t).drɔst/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: land‧drost

Noun

landdrost m (plural landdrosten)

1. (historical) an official and magistrate in rural jurisdictions during the Ancien Régime
2. (historical) a magistrate in the Cape Colony
3. (historical) the head of an unincorporated area in the Netherlands
4. (historical) the head of a department in the Kingdom of Holland

Descendants

• Afrikaans: landdros
  • English: landdros
• → English: landdrost