S. Africa. [From the initials of Du. Zuid Afrikaansch Republikeinsch Politie South African Republican Police.] An appellation for a member of the Boer police force in the late South African Republic; a Boer constable. Hence Zarpine a., of or belonging to the ‘Zarps.’
1895. Standard & Diggers News (Johannesburg), 23. Nov., 21. The Zarp produces his latest capture. Jan, an Ethiop, is a vagrant who resisted Zarpine authority, and even attempted to test the Zarpine probity by the bribe of a six-pence.
1897. Garrett & Edwards, An African Crisis, xiii. 197–8. An onlooker at Cape Town cynically remarked: ‘Those Johannesburg fellows might at least shoot one Zarp’ (Anglice, policeman).
