strandloper
/ˈstrantˌlʊəpə
/(also strandlooper)
noun
1 (Strandloper) A member of a Khoisan people who lived on the southern shores of southern Africa from prehistoric times until the second millennium ad.‘There are not prominent brows, indicating a woman, and the front is that of a typical strandloper,’ he said....
- This area too was the stomping ground of the earliest inhabitants of the peninsula - the Khoi-San hunter-gatherers, ‘strandloopers’ who foraged a living from the sea.
- Prehistoric rubbish heaps produced by the strandlopers are found in a number of caves and tell a great deal about the San people's lifestyle.
2South African A person who collects items on the shore; a beachcomber.Mouths caked numb by a throat-cracking berg wind, we lurched back along the beach, bumbling along the craggy rocks to rest beneath the overhang, surfed out strandlopers looking wild and red-eyed....
- The strandlopers, back in the 17th century, dined on mussels, abalone, crayfish and seals, on roots and fruits and edible seaweed.
- Martin said he would like to see Xhosa actors playing the role of Khoikhoi heroes like Harry the Strandloper, David Stuurman, Sarah Baartman, Allan Boesak and others, to acknowledge the cultural diversity.
Origin
Afrikaans, from strand 'seashore' + loper 'runner'.