Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- a South African of Dutch extraction.
adjective
- of or relating to the Boers.
noun, adjective
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- a descendant of any of the Dutch or Huguenot colonists who settled in South Africa, mainly in Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal
- (as modifier)a Boer farm
“Dutch colonist in South Africa,” 1824, from Dutch boer “farmer,” from Middle Dutch, cognate with Old English gebur “dweller, farmer, peasant,” and thus related to bower, German Bauer, and the final syllable of neighbor (see boor). Boer War (1899-1902) was technically the Second Boer War, there having been a brief preview 1880-1881.
Dutch settlers in South Africa, also known as Afrikaners. The Boers were repeatedly driven further inland by British settlers; the British finally defeated them in the Boer War of 1899–1902. Boer is Dutch for “farmer.”