List of South African Slang Words - Original South African English Coinages

Original South African English Coinages

• as well – means "me too" when pronounced with over-emphasis on the "as"
• boykie or boitjie – meaning a young white male who is cool in the high-school stereotype kind of way. Sporty and tanned, uses a lot of slang. From English "boy" and the Afrikaans "-tjie" meaning little.
• baff – Fart
• bonehead – derogatory term for an Afrikaner
• bra – male friend (shortening of brother, see also bru above)
• canyon crab – see bonehead
• cherps or chips – "Watch out" or "Move out the way", as in "Chips chips everyone, here comes the teacher!" (distinct from the food or snack). Also often used when something gets thrown, or to ask someone to step out the way. Compare "heads up!".
• chop – idiot, doos
• chot – a very offensive term for a sexually active female
• clutchplate – see bonehead
• connection – a friend, mate, chommie
• cozzie – a swimsuit, short for swimming costume
• crunchie – see bonehead, rockspider
• dis - to intentionally disregard somebody else..
• doff – stupid. "Are you doff?"
• dop – Drink or to drink, primarily when talking about alcohol
• give rocks, to – to be indifferent. For example: I give rocks about your concerns! (I couldn't care about your concerns!) Can also be abbreviated to "Give rocks.", and the negative version "I don't give rocks" means exactly the same thing.
• giyn – a homosexual male
• graze – a term used in reference to food. "I'm starving, let's go get some graze."
• higher grade – a bit too complicated (from the South African matric division of exams into standard grade and higher grade. The system of dividing subjects into higher and standard grade has become non-existent as of 2008.)
• hundreds – good, fine. (As in 100 percent; for example: John: "Boet, How are you doing?" Dominic: "I am Hundreds boet.")
• jukka – a lazy person or a loser
• just now, sometime in the near future, not necessarily immediately. Expresses an intention to act soon, but not necessarily immediately. (as in 20–90 minutes time)
• now now – an immediate but not literal declaration of impending action, may be past or future tense. From the Afrikaans expression "nou nou". (as in 5–60 minutes)
• Dutchman – derogatory term for a white Afrikaner.
• isit – (pronounced: \izit\) the words "is" and "it" put together. Short term for "Is that so?" (For example: John: "Bra, I just found out I have a million dollars!" Charles: "Isit?"; or: John: "Bru, you would not believe how amazing it felt to footskate in front of all those people." Charles: "Isit?") Also, it can mean "really?"
• lift – elevator
• location – a Bantu township
• naai – derogatory for having sex with a girl ("Last night she gave me a lekker naai"), British English 'fuck'
• packet – a plastic bag
• plankton – see bonehead
• robot – traffic-light
• rockspider – see bonehead
• rope – derogatory term for an Afrikaner – as in thick, hairy and twisted
• rop – nice, radical. (e.g. "That was such a rop wave.") Also used as a verb meaning 'to steal'. (e.g. "I will rop you of that kief watch.")
• scheme – to think that (e.g. "I scheme we should go home now"; usage evolved from the hyperbole "What are you scheming?" asked of a person deep in thought.)
• siff – if something is gross or disgusting or ugly. "Did you see her oufit? It was totally siff!"
• slops – flip-flops
• speak goat – derogatory term for speaking Afrikaans
• soapie – a soap opera
• swak – see "swat"
• swat – carrying out an action resulting in an undesirable or negative outcome; "when you chaffed my cherrie the other day, it was swat oke. Totally swat"; "Moderating a list of slang words is impossible and totally swat oke"; "Changing this word to swak would be totally swat oke".
• Skommel(draadtrek) – to masturbate
• tickey – Thruppence or 3 pennies, e.g. "You could get a tickey for returning a coke bottle and three tickeys would buy you an eskimo pie". Dated.
• tune – to give someone lip ("Are you tuning me?")
• voertsêk – impolite way to say "go away", commonly used with animals or as derogatory term. (from Dutch voort seg ik)
• saamie – a sandwich