Orange Free State
- proper noun
:
Estado Libre de Orange
- A new opposition to the government could spring from groups in the Orange Free State and North-West province who use the term "African" to describe themselves and who have started to reassert their African identity and the primacy of their claims for economic compensation over those of Coloureds and Indians (The Economist 1994).
- Orange Free State and Transvaal
Examples
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The fact that Great Britain had agreed, by treaty, to stay out of the political affairs of Transvaal and the Orange Free State, did not prevent increased demands for renewed British intervention.
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MAP: FIG. 7 - Orange Free State gold-mining region.
Academic text (1992) -
In the mid-1800s, the British established the Orange Free State, the South African Republic, and Natal, which surrounded the Lovedu.
Academic text (1998) -
The Great Trek was a retreat from British expansionism, and the creation of the Orange Free State was an establishment of a fiefdom that the Boers could call their own, away from British domination.
Academic text (2018) -
Gold mines of the Anglo American Corporation are located on three goldfields: Klerksdorp-Orkney, Carletonville, and the Orange Free State, each with a distinct geography and labor profile (Fig. 1).
Academic text (1992) -
Deneys Reitz, son of a former Orange Free State president, joined a commando at 17.
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Historically, they had been instrumental in the Boers' expansion and colonization of the regions of South Africa that came to be the Transvaal and Orange Free State.
Synonyms
1
6.1
A province in central South Africa known for farming and wide open plains
Surface Forms
Morphology
Knowing 'orange', 'free' and 'state' would allow a B1 learner to infer this refers to some kind of political entity (a 'state' described as 'free') and that 'Orange' is a distinguishing name, but they would not be able to derive that it is a specific historical province in central South Africa or its colonial background. The proper-name status and the cultural/geographical reference (named after the Orange River/House of Orange and now called Free State) require encyclopedic knowledge beyond constituent meanings, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Orange Free State comes from two simple ideas: the Orange part is from the Orange River, which was named for a Dutch prince, and Free State means it was a 'free' or 'independent' area run by the Boers. So the name pointed to an independent Boer region by the Orange River, and today it refers to a former 'province' now called 'Free State' since 1997.