Formerly boor. [Du. boer ‘countryman, peasant, farmer,’ the same word that in a general sense is spelt BOOR. The latter was formerly used also for the Dutch settlers in South Africa, but in more recent times the Du. spelling boer has been appropriated to this sense.]
A Dutch colonist in South Africa engaged in agriculture or cattle-breeding. (In recent newspaper language, the name has been applied especially to those of the Transvaal and other districts beyond the British dominions.)
[See earlier quots. under BOOR 2 b.]
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., i. 127. Tall Dutch-African boors … were bawling in Colonial-Dutch. Ibid., iv. 182. To begin the world respectably as a Vei Boer, or grazier.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., ii. 29. The Boers of the Cashan Mountains…. The word Boer simply means ‘farmer,’ and is not synonymous with our word boor.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., i. 11. Such a story … would be naturally referred to the Dutch boers.
