Khoikhoi

Khoi·khoi

(koi′koi)n. pl. Khoikhoi or Khoi·khois or Khoi·khoin (-koi′ĭn) 1. A member of a group of pastoral peoples of Namibia and South Africa, including the Nama.2. Any of the Khoisan languages of the Khoikhoi. In both senses also called Khoekhoe.

[Nama khoekhoen, the Nama people : khoekhoe, to speak Nama (from khoe-, person, as in khoeb, man khoes, woman) + -n, pl. common gender suff.]

Khoikhoi

(kɔɪˈkɔɪ; xɔɪˈxɔɪ) n1. (Peoples) a member of a race of people of Southern Africa, of short stature and a dark yellowish-brown complexion, who formerly occupied the region near the Cape of Good Hope and are now almost extinct2. (Languages) any of the languages of this people, belonging to the Khoisan family

Khoi•khoi

(ˈkɔɪˌkɔɪ)

n., pl. -khois, (esp. collectively) -khoi. 1. a member of any of a group of pastoral peoples, physically and linguistically akin to the San, who inhabited present-day Cape Province, South Africa, in the 17th century. 2. the Khoisan language or languages of the Khoikhoi, now principally represented by the speech of the Nama.

Thesaurus

Noun

Khoikhoi - any of the Khoisan languages spoken by the pastoral people of Namibia and South AfricaHottentot, KhoikhoinKhoisan, Khoisan language - a family of languages spoken in southern Africa

Khoikhoi

(koi`koi'), people numbering about 55,000 mainly in Namibia and in W South Africa. The Khoikhoi have been called Hottentots by whites in South Africa. In language and in physical type the Khoikhoi appear to be related to the SanSan
, people of SW Africa (mainly Botswana, Namibia, Angola, and South Africa), consisting of several groups and numbering about 100,000 in all. They are generally short in stature; their skin is yellowish brown in color; and they have broad noses, flat ears, bulging foreheads,
..... Click the link for more information. (Bushmen), i.e., they speak a variation of the Khoisan, or Click, language (see African languagesAfrican languages,
geographic rather than linguistic classification of languages spoken on the African continent. Historically the term refers to the languages of sub-Saharan Africa, which do not belong to a single family, but are divided among several distinct linguistic stocks.
..... Click the link for more information. . Both are generally much lighter in complexion than the neighboring Bantu, and genetic studies suggests that both became isolated from other humans around 100,000 years ago. Historically a pastoral people, inhabiting the coast of the Cape of Good Hope in historic times, the Khoikhoi were the first native people to come into contact (mid-17th cent.) with the Dutch settlers. As the Dutch took over land for farms, the Khoikhoi were dispossessed, exterminated, or enslaved, and their numbers dwindled. They were similarly dispossessed and exterminated by the Germans in the early 1900s in Namibia. The Khoikhoi were formerly divided into 10 clans, each ruled by a headman and councillors elected by universal male suffrage. The Khoikhoi have largely disappeared as a group, except for the Namas (see NamaqualandNamaqualand
or Namaland
, region, c.150,000 sq mi (388,500 sq km), SW Africa. It extends from Windhoek, Namibia, in the north to Northern Cape, South Africa, in the south and from the Namib Desert in the west to the Kalahari Desert in the east.
..... Click the link for more information. ) of SW Africa, who still live as pastoral nomads. Most Khoikhoi now are settled in villages, living as farmers and laborers.

Bibliography

See I. Schapera, The Khoisan Peoples of South Africa (1930, repr. 1965); P. Heap, The Story of Hottentots Holland (1970).

Khoikhoi

Khoi·khoi

Khoikhoi

Khoi•khoi

Khoikhoi

Khoikhoi

Bibliography

Khoikhoi

Synonyms for Khoikhoi

noun any of the Khoisan languages spoken by the pastoral people of Namibia and South Africa

Synonyms

Related Words