Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🚚 A South African pioneer 🌟 A pioneer
voortrekker

voortrekker

9.9
A Dutch-speaking settler who moved from the Cape Colony into South Africa's interior in the 1800s
  • noun
  • /ˈvʊərˌtrɛkər/
  • South African
translation icon : voortrekker
  • Many Voortrekkers settled in areas that would later become key agricultural regions in South Africa.
  • Voortrekker monument

Examples

  • Similar work is being pursued by the Department of Missiology at the University of South Africa (UNISA) in Pretoria, right in the shadow of the Voortrekker monument, which might be described as the emotional "soul" of Afrikanerdom.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The Voortrekker pioneers played a significant role in the history of South Africa during the 1800s.

  • In one of the panels, women and children in Voortrekker dress are shown walking to the camps, and in the other, a woman is dying.

    Academic text (2000)

  • The Voortrekker monument, situated in the Pretoria area, is the bastion of Afrikanerdom and is regarded as hallowed ground.

    Academic text (1996)

  • As a member of the Voortrekker community, he felt a strong connection to his ancestors' journey into the interior of South Africa.

Surface Forms

voortrekker singular
voortrekkers plural

Etymology

Voortrekker is a Dutch/Afrikaans word made of voor- meaning 'in front' and trek meaning 'journey', just like the English word trek. It was the name for the Dutch-speaking pioneers who left the Cape Colony and moved inland in the 1800s, so the word keeps the idea of people who go ahead into new land.