dressed, participial adjective
- Origin:
- EnglishShow more Special sense of general English; alluding to the wearing of Western-style clothing (rather than traditional African dress).
obs. except in historical contexts
Of urban African people: westernized in dress, manner, and language, but without a full school education. Cf. blanket, school adjective.
1943 ‘J. Burger’ Black Man’s Burden 55The older Natives now distinguish between ‘dressed’ and ‘blanket’ Natives.
1980 D.B. Coplan Urbanization of African Performing Arts. 57As distinct from the highly Westernized African graduates of Cape mission schools, they were called ‘dressed people’ inferring their superficial adoption of European culture in the form of clothing, a limited fluency in Afrikaans or English, and an individualized, opportunistic social outlook...The ‘dressed people,’ also called abaphakathi (‘those in the middle’), occupied an insecure position between mission-school Africans and non-Christian traditionalists in African society as a whole.
westernized in dress, manner, and language, but without a full school education.
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