Dopper, noun1 and & adjective

/ˈdɔpə(r)/
Forms:
Also Dorper, and with small initial.
Origin:
Etymology obscure:
Note:
‘The late Paul Kruger — a great pillar of that church — used to say that the word came from the Dutch “Domper”, meaning extinguisher, because the Reformed Church objected to the “new lights” introduced by other churches into their worship,..for which reason the name “domper” (degenerated into “dopper”) was given to the church. Another good authority stated that the word “dopper” is derived from “dorper”, meaning villager, a term used to distinguish the countryman from the townsman; while the oldest derivation is from “dop”, a shell, from the way in which the old people used to cut their hair so as to resemble an inverted calabash shell on their heads.’ (L.H. Brinkman The Glory of the Back Veld, 1924, p.58.) See also quotation 1990.
A. noun
a. A nickname for a member of the strictly calvinist Gereformeerde Kerk in Suid-Afrika (see Gereformeerde); sometimes derogatory.
1850 N.J. Merriman Cape Jrnls (1957) 142These Doppers are a sort of Dutch Church Puritans, their principal characteristics being a Quakerish costume in dress, a disinclination to sing hymns in the church, [etc.].
1856 R.E.E. Wilmot Diary (1984) 51Doppers..are a species of Dutch Boer happily confined to the Eastern Province and sovereignty, whose religious tenets differ from the Dutch Reformed Church.
1878 P. Gillmore Great Thirst Land 275The Boers I am surrounded by all belong to a religious sect called ‘Doppers.’ Their dress is a short single-breasted coat, trousers very loose, and peculiar-shaped broad-brimmed hats.
1881 G.F. Austen Diary (1981) 27Committed to the care of the Revd. Maury — (Dopper).
1887 J.W. Matthews Incwadi Yami 401These ‘doppers’, relics of the past,..do not differ essentially from the members of the Dutch Reformed Church in doctrine; they are simply more conservative in feeling, less liberal in action, very jealous of innovation and entirely unprogressive in ideas.
1892 W.L. Distant Naturalist in Tvl 27The Doppers are the Quakers and Plymouth Bretheren of the Dutch Church in the Transvaal. As a rule no instrumental music is used in their services, and no hymns are allowed, the Psalms of the Old Testament alone being sung.
1924 L.H. Brinkman Glory of Backveld 58Grobler was a strictly orthodox man, belonging to the Reformed Church — a sect commonly referred to as ‘Doppers’.
c1949 M.C. Botha in 20th C. Inquisition (Education League) (pamphlet)I have no objection to the doctrine of the Gereformeerde Church and it has always seemed very possible to me for Doppers and members of the Dutch Reformed Church to live together as Afrikaners in love and peace.
1959 L.G. Green These Wonders 148Religious arguments arose, and the Doppers moved off and founded a settlement of their own.
1984 Cosmopolitan Mar. 44I am a Dopper, which in Afrikaans religious circles means something of a maverick. So you will excuse me, please, for not hesitating to speak out.
1990 R. Malan My Traitor’s Heart 17Many Afrikaners were calling themselves Doppers, after the little metal caps with which they snuffed out candles. They called themselves Doppers because they were deliberately and consciously extinguishing the light of Enlightenment.
1991 A. Van Wyk Birth of New Afrikaner 109They are known as Doppers and, although orthodox in Calvinist/Protestant doctrine, they have for years been more enlightened in their political way of thinking than their DRC brethren...I respect FW as a good Dopper.
b. combinations
Dopper Church, ||Dopper Kerk [Afrikaans, kerk church], the Gereformeerde Kerk in Suid-Afrika (see Gereformeerde), one of the family of Afrikaans Calvinist churches; the church building used by members of this church .
Note:
See note at Dutch Reformed.
1877Dopper Church: [see Ned Geref].
1893 Brown’s S. Afr. 218Other Churches are the Dopper Church where the President occasionally preaches and the Wesleyan Church in Church Street; the German, Baptist, Kaffir Church &c.
1903 D. Blackburn Burgher Quixote 2I hold that..no man has a right to preach unless he be a qualified predikant — by which it will be seen that I have no part or lot in the Dopper Church.
1929 D. Reitz Commando 20On Sundays he preached in the queer little Dopper church.
1949 J. Mockford Golden Land 249The spire of the ‘Dopper’ Church across the street where President Kruger worshipped is one of the landmarks of the city.
1950 H.C. Bosman in S. Gray Makapan’s Caves (1987) 141The commandant-general and the dominee had words about whether the plein in the middle of the dorp should be for the Dopper Church, with a pastorie next to it.
1963 S. Cloete Rags of Glory 22The little Dopper Church, where he preached every Sunday and waited for those who wished to see him.
1975 E. Prov. Herald 27 May 37Two churches, the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk and the Gereformeerde (Dopper) Kerk, were the foundations on which the town grew.
B. adjective
a. Of or pertaining to the Doppers, or descriptive of their former conservative, old-fashioned dress and hairstyle.
1881 P. Gillmore Land of Boer 111A stalwart Boer from the Transvaal, and dressed in the Dopper costume.
1882 C. Du Val With Show through Sn Afr. I. 289His head, surmounted by what is known as a Dopper hat — namely, a black cloth steeple-crowned edifice, with a brim not less than seven inches deep and turned up with green.
1899 R. Devereux Side Lights on S. Afr. 76One of the farms I visited belonged to one Erasmus, not the rich Erasmus who recently married into the Kruger family, but a fair average specimen of the ‘Dopper’ Boer class.
1908 J.M. Orpen Reminisc. (1964) 240When he left the Raad he was dressed in the dopper fashion with a jacket reaching to the top of his hips and a broad-rimmed, hard felt hat.
1946 S. Cloete Afr. Portraits 379This remarkable man stands for the future of South Africa as clearly as the Dopper Boer stands for its past.
1949 L.G. Green In Land of Afternoon 165There was a ‘Dopper’ style of hair-cut, and for a period the word ‘Dopper’ was used derisively.
a1951 H.C. Bosman Willemsdorp (1977) 94The cut had been fashionable a century ago: those ‘dopper’ suits with embroidered jackets were worn in homage to the Voortrekkers and the Transvaal’s historic past.
1971 L.G. Green Taste of S.-Easter 179He had watched a Cape Flats housewife giving her son a dopper haircut using half a pumpkin to guide her scissors.
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 114The trekkers, dressed in traditional dopper coats (short coats buttoned from top to bottom), kappies (bonnets) and hand-made riempieskoene (leather thong shoes).
b. nonce. Of or pertaining to unsophisticated, rural people.
1900 Daily News 13 Feb. 7The burghers being chiefly of the ‘dopper’ or back-country class.
A nickname for a member of the strictly calvinist Gereformeerde Kerk in Suid-Afrika (see Gereformeerde); sometimes derogatory.
, the Gereformeerde Kerk in Suid-Afrika (see Gereformeerde), one of the family of Afrikaans Calvinist churches; the church building used by members of this church
Of or pertaining to the Doppers, or descriptive of their former conservative, old-fashioned dress and hairstyle.
Of or pertaining to unsophisticated, rural people.
Derivatives:
Hence (nonce) Dopperdom  noun, the ‘Doppers’ collectively; doppered  adjective  jocular, dominated by ‘Doppers’; doppery  adjective, see quotation 1901.
1888 Cape Punch 28 Mar. 184Australia:..Perhaps old mama Britannia adopted you. Cape: Yes, I’m an adopted son, although mamma sometimes says I’m a doppered son.
1898 W. Harcourt in A.G. Gardiner Life of Sir William Harcourt (1923) II. 461It is with a view to this that A.M. (sc. Alfred Milner) wants a display of more force..to ‘convince Dopperdom that England means war’, if Kruger does not do our bidding.
1901 W.S. Sutherland S. Afr. Sketches 86The calibre of people comes out in a camp as it does in a big city...‘East-end’ hails from Zastron, and is somewhat ‘doppery’.
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