Cape Province
- proper noun
:
Provincia del Cabo
- Zoe Wicomb, b. 1948, Cape Province, teaches English and in recent years has moved between the University of the Western Cape and the University of Strathclyde.
Examples
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The family traced their roots back to the early settlers who arrived in Cape Province in the 17th century.
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Their mother had died, and they were sent for the winter school holidays from the city where they lived with two adult sisters and a family retainer to their father, who ran a hotel in a remote corner of Cape Province.
Fiction book (1996) -
The most "hideous" of these, he reported, were the Cafres (Khoi) of the Cape Province, South Africa, who "live almost like beasts."
Academic text (2018) -
After exploring the natural beauty, they decided to settle in Cape Province for its rich cultural heritage.
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During their trip, they learned about the history of Cape Province, including its transition from Dutch to British control.
Synonyms
A former province in southern South Africa that split in 1994 into Western, Eastern, and Northern Cape
A former province in southern South Africa settled by the Dutch and later ruled by Britain
Surface Forms
Morphology
Cape + province
The meaning (‘a province associated with the Cape region’) is directly derivable from combining 'Cape' (a geographic headland or region, e.g. Cape of Good Hope) with 'province' (an administrative unit). Although it is a proper name, the compositional pattern is straightforward and common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would infer it denotes the province covering the Cape area.
Etymology
Cape Province takes its name from the Cape of Good Hope, the rocky point where early Dutch sailors landed and built a settlement in 1652, and the surrounding area later became an official province under Dutch and British rule. That's why Cape Province refers to the 'former province' in southern South Africa that was split into smaller provinces in 1994.
