pap, noun

/pap/
Origin:
Afrikaans, Dutch, EnglishShow more Afrikaans (from Dutch), porridge. (Cf. general English pap gruel.)
1.
a. mealiepap. b. Occasionally, any porridge. In both senses also called papa, poop noun2. Also attributive.
1858 T. Shone Diary. 29 MayNothing to do, dry bread and pap for dinner, with Coffee and tea.
1862 E.L. Price Jrnls (1956) 104Their empty unfurnished huts, with several pots, varying according to the number of the family, wh. are their only eating vessels for meat, milk or pap.
1866 E.L. Price Jrnls (1956) 203Fancy them tearing meat, and snatching lumps of pap out of each-others hands yelling curses all the while.
1872 C.A. Payton Diamond Diggings 139They will frequently provide themselves with an extra in the shape of offal,..but still have an appetite unimpaired for the discussion of their mealie porridge, or ‘pap’ as they call it.
1879 E.L. Price Jrnls (1956) 343The boy was grinding some Sechwana corn wh., do you remember, is a red & round grain, and the old woman in the kitchen made pap of it — but it looked quite black, and our little folks..would not taste the black pap.
1880 E.F. Sandeman Eight Months in Ox-Waggon 57The ordinary boys are content with mealie meal and salt, with which they make ‘pap’ or porridge, and an occasional treat of meat when passing through a town.
1893 Brown’s S. Afr. 200A museum with many objects of interest, including Cetewayo’s cooking pots and pap dish.
1896 R. Wallace Farming Indust. of Cape Col. 464Mealies..are often ground into meal, made into thick porridges or ‘pap’, and eaten, either alone or with milk, by means of large wooden spoons.
c1904 E.L. Price Jrnls (1956) 63The servants food was mealiemeal porridge — cooked with whey — occasionally varied by..the head, liver etc. of the animal, a piece in each bowl of pap.
1920 F.C. Cornell Glamour of Prospecting 51Boer meal was the staple food; a big three-legged pot of it boiled into steaming ‘pap’ made an excellent breakfast.
1968 K. McMagh Dinner of Herbs 80This little fellow, like every other umfaan earning a few shillings a month and his pap from the post-cart people, had as his sole garment the tattered remains of a navy-blue army greatcoat minus buttons.
1979 Sunday Times 13 May 4He was born in England, went to school and university here, but was, and I quote...‘as South African as boerewors and pap’.
1982 C. Van Wyk Message in Wind 12That evening the small household sat around the supper table eating their meal of pap, boerewors and tomato gravy.
1985 Financial Mail 18 Oct. (Fedics Suppl.) 40I would not serve salt in a Sotho’s mealie-meal because that’s like putting a curse on him. In contrast, I won’t forget to put it in a Zulu’s pap as he won’t eat it without it.
1990 R. Stengel January Sun 62Pap is a porridge made from maize that is the staple of the local black diet (no meal is considered complete without it).
1987 M. Melamu Children of Twilight 294A generous helping of mealiemeal pap three times a day, washed down with a jam-can of black, liberally sugared coffee.
1991 Best of S. Afr. Short Stories (Reader’s Digest Assoc.) 388Pap, of course, is porridge — traditionally mealie meal, a basic African food. A form of this, called stywe pap (stiff porridge), has become part of the great South African braaivleis tradition, when it is eaten with meat or wors (sausage).
1994 L. Rulashe in Tribute May 90This all came with a serving of baked potato smothered in sour cream, plus stiff pap and tomato gravy which was brought to the table in small three-legged pots.
2. In the names of popular dishes [the conjunction en in these phrases is Afrikaans, ‘and’]: pap and boerewors or pap en boerewors [Afrikaans boerewors (see boerewors sense 1)], maize porridge and boerewors; also attributive; pap and braaivleis (or pap en braaivleis) [Afrikaans braaivleis (braai grill + vleis meat)], maize porridge and grilled meat; nonce, the social occasion at which such food is enjoyed; pap en vleis (or pap and vleis) /-ˈfleɪs/ [Afrikaans vleis meat], maize porridge and meat; also figurative, a simple task, see quotation 1989; pap en wors (or pap and wors) [Afrikaans wors sausage], maize porridge and sausage, usually boerewors; also attributive.
1980 M. Lorentz in Rand Daily Mail 14 Nov. 10Promise of nectar and honey while the kitchen ultimately produces food only slightly above the pap-and-boerewors standard.
1982 M. Mzamane Children of Soweto 106They brought us pap and boerewors. We ate in silence.
1986 Star 17 Oct. 11As the pap and boerewors simmer on the fire, Lood Minnie’s bushy moustache bristles with indignation.
1970 J. Goosen Informant, Queenstown, Eastern CapeGoing to a pap and braaivleis tonight.
1974 E. Prov. Herald 15 May 1They enjoyed ‘pap’ and braaivleis around a camp fire.
1986 S. Afr. Panorama Feb. 16In a trice a fire is on the go and breakfast prepared. Bacon and eggs,..or pap and braaivleis — who could ask for anything more!
1974 E. Prov. Herald 16 May 1Last night..800 Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut delegates and guests forsook the cuisine of the upper floors for good old ‘pap en vleis’ braaied in the hotel’s parking basement.
1976 S. Afr. Panorama Feb. 35Pap en vleis (porridge and grilled meat) stay top of the bill.
1984 S. Zungu in Pace Oct. 64I really believe in the simple things in life like pap and vleis.
1986 Learn & Teach No.2, 30I told him that I wanted pap and vleis...I paid, then I saw that the meat was not cooked.
1987 H. Prendini in Style May 49Nomsa was going to the theatre, she hadn’t had supper, so..we cooked a meal. You know, pap en vleis.
1987 S. Hinton in Weekly Mail 19 June 26The South African indigenous cuisine is a mysterious and not easily accessible lineament of the cultural landscape...Outside waterblommetjie bredie and koeksusters, pap-en-vleis and perhaps vetkoek what national dishes spring to mind?
1987 Pace Aug. 10Mr Buthelezi is still very much African — you might say he’s as traditional as pap en vleis.
1989 Pace Mar. 24My father is a policeman and I used to watch him load his gun — it’s not pap and vleis; it takes time.
1990 Evening Post 19 Feb. 3It’s not in fact terribly difficult to establish that feeling of common nationhood. You know, to sit and eat pap and vleis together.
1970 M. Van Tonder Informant, Bloemfontein, Free StateWe are having ‘pap en wors’ for supper.
1974 C. Hope on Radio South Africa 7 Sept.Pap en wors morning noon and night, if you’re lucky.
1980 Sunday Times 7 Sept. 18‘Little blighter,’ Gran would say fondly. ‘Who does he think he is? If he doesn’t swallow that pap and wors pronto I’ll shoot him in the patellas.’
1983 Argus 9 MayCNA bring you 5067 alternatives to pap and wors.
1984 Sunday Times 8 July (Lifestyle) 9Leading the convoy was a vintage Rolls-Royce, gleaming black and ivory, with headlamps the size of pap en wors plates.
1990 Sunday Times 27 May 4Known to aficionados as the Big D...It’s in Johannesburg’s CBD between used car sales-rooms and pap and wors cafés.
1991 H.P. Toffoli in Style Nov. 84A bunch of lumpen platteland proles if ever you saw one, this lot was unashamedly pigging out on vast plates of patriotic pap en wors.
mealiepap. b. Occasionally, any porridge. In both senses also called papa, poop noun2. Also attributive.
pap and boerewors or pap en boerewors [Afrikaans boerewors (see boerewors sense 1)],maize porridge and boerewors; also attributive; pap and braaivleis (or pap en braaivleis) [Afrikaans braaivleis (braai grill + vleis meat)], maize porridge and grilled meat; nonce, the social occasion at which such food is enjoyed; pap en vleis (or pap and vleis) /-ˈfleɪs/ [Afrikaans vleis meat], maize porridge and meat; also figurative, a simple task, see quotation 1989; pap en wors (or pap and wors) [Afrikaans wors sausage], maize porridge and sausage, usually boerewors; also attributive.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

18581994

Browse Related Words

By Category

Foods and Dishes

By Origin

Afrikaans
Dutch

By Usage

rare or nonce
figurative or allusive
pantsula, nounn.pap, adjectiveadj.
Copyright © 2023 Dictionary Unit for South African English.