handlanger

See also: Handlanger

English

WOTD – 14 December 2016

Apprentices working in Leipzig, Germany, in 1963

Etymology

Borrowed from Afrikaans handlanger (“assistant, helper”), from Dutch handlanger (“accomplice, henchman; assistant, helper”), analyzable as hand (“hand”) + langen (“to hand over or pass to”) + -er (“suffix indicating the subject performing an action”) (in the sense of someone who puts things into another person's hands), from German Handlanger (“handyman; henchman”), from Hand (“hand”) + langen (“to hand over, to give; to reach for something”) + -er (“suffix forming agent nouns from verbs”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhændˌlæŋə/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Hyphenation: hand‧lang‧er

Noun

handlanger (plural handlangers)

1. (South Africa) An unskilled assistant to an artisan.
   • 1976, Het Suid Western:

     […] building himself brick by brick, with his wife as his only handlanger.

2. (South Africa, figuratively) An aide, an assistant.
   • 2006, Richard Calland, Anatomy of South Africa: Who Holds the Power?, Cape Town: Zebra Press, →ISBN, page 177:

     [E]very political leader has a handlanger. Like a toddler with a security blanket, the political handlanger is a necessary sop and sponge for all the tension that goes with the job. And there is nothing either disreputable or degrading about the role. Politics can be spiteful and demanding; the handlanger is the trusted confidant, the one person whom the leader can sound out, seek counsel from and trust.

   • 2016 March 17, Judith February, “Which colour pill will the ANC choose?”, in Daily Maverick‎^[1], archived from the original on 11 April 2016:

     The time for talk truly is over now. The ANC will have to do the necessary, find its backbone and rein in [Jacob] Zuma, his cronies and their handlangers to avert an economic crisis happening on its watch.

3. Alternative letter-case form of Handlanger.

Translations

unskilled assistant to an artisan

• German: Handlanger (de) m

References

• Jean Branford (1978) A Dictionary of South African English, Cape Town, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.

Further reading

• “handlanger”, in Collins English Dictionary.

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch handlanger, from German Handlanger.

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

handlanger (plural handlangers, diminutive handlangertjie)

1. assistant, helper (one who aids)
2. henchman, accomplice (one who is an enabler or accessory to a crime)

Descendants

• → English: handlanger

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from German Handlanger. Equivalent to hand +‎ langen +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɦɑntˌlɑ.ŋər/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hand‧lan‧ger

Noun

handlanger m (plural handlangers, diminutive handlangertje n)

1. accomplice, henchman (one who assists in criminal or unethical activity)
2. (now chiefly Suriname or Zeeland, otherwise dated) assistant; helper
   • 2015 March 13, Wout Bareman, “Waarom Rubens wel en Dirk de Witte niet”, in Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant, page 28:

     De Witte ontpopte zich als een handlanger van het Belgische verzet.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Descendants

• Afrikaans: handlanger
  • → English: handlanger