tsotsin.
/ˈtsɒtsi/, U.S. /ˈtsɑtsi/, South African English /ˈtsɒtsi/ South African.
An African street thug or hoodlum, usually from the black townships and distinctively dressed in narrow trousers or in garments of exaggerated cut. Also in extended sense. Also attributive.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > violent behaviour > [noun] > violent treatment or force > frequenting streets
scamperer1712
sweater1712
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corner-cove1862
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corner-man1885
voyoua1896
tsotsi1949
1949 Cape Argus 20 July 8/9 (heading) Tsotsi gangs who hate Bantu students.
1949 Cape Times 10 Sept. 8/6 The ‘Tsotsi’ may be distinguished by his exceedingly narrow trousers which hardly reach his shoes, or else by his ‘zoot suit’.
1956 H. Bloom Episode xv. 273 One could tell they were tsotsis by their fancy clothes, by the way they took command... They led the mobs.
1971 Sunday Times (Johannesburg) 28 Mar. (Mag.) 9/7 We do not want agitators to give hooligans and tsotsis the chance to plunder shops and businesses.
1979 A. Brink Dry White Season i. vii. 70 ‘You may be a lanie’—his red tongue caressed the syllables of the taunting tsotsi word—‘but you've got it right here.’
Derivatives
ˈtsotsi-ism n.
ΚΠ
1952 B. Davidson Rep. S. Afr. ii. v. 121 The conditions out of which have grown such strange and horrible manifestations of maladjustment as tsotsi-ism.
Draft additions September 2018
ˈtsotsi ˌtaal n. = Isicamtho n.Isicamtho and flaaitaal are now the preferred terms for this hybrid language.Originally used by gangs as a secret language but now widely incorporated into colloquial speech, especially by young people. [ < Afrikaans tsotsi-taal (1960 or earlier) < Sotho tsotsi (see tsotsi n.) + Afrikaans taal language (see taal n.).]
ΚΠ
1966 A. Maimane in Transition No. 27. 9 They also spoke the same jargon—a mixture of English, Afrikaans, Yiddish and the vernaculars... To the outsider they were all tsotsis, wore tsotsi clothes and spoke the tsotsi taal.
1976 Rand Daily Mail 21 Apr. 5 Ordinary young men and women..delight in chatting in any Black language or a Black language mixed with ‘street’ Afrikaans, commonly known as ‘Tsotsi taal’.
1980 D. B. Coplan Urbanization Afr. Performing Arts 442 Tsotsitaal..The Afrikaans-based urban African proletarian dialect, spoken by all urban African proletarians up until the 1960's, but especially by young juvenile delinquents, some of whom spoke no other language.
1994 C. Glaser in Societies of Southern Afr.19th & 20th Cent. 20 136 The kalkoen tsotsitaal was Zulu-based and evolved into scamtho, the dominant street language in Soweto today. The term of derision was eventually adopted positively by the youths of Soweto origin themselves.
2013 Times (Nexis) 10 Aug. (Saturday Review) 24 From the energetic bump of the kwaito soundtrack to the punchy dialogue in tsotsi-taal (gangster slang), Hood puts authenticity and honesty foremost in this tale of a Jo'burg thug who finds a conscience.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1949