English edit

Etymology edit

hairy +‎ back

Pronunciation edit

  • (file)

Noun edit

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.