nyatsi, noun
/ˈnjatsi/
- Plurals:
- unchanged, or ‖dinyatsi.
- Origin:
- Southern Sotho.
Especially among Sotho-speakers: a paramour; the lover of a married person. Also attributive.
1948 E. Hellmann Rooiyard 50Some married women form more permanent liaisons with a nyatsi (‘back-door husband’), who gives them cash presents every month. Such a woman, unbeknown to her husband, succeeds in earning part of her alleged beer money by having one or more nyatsi.
1986 Drum Apr. 32 (letter)I discovered that she had a ‘nyatsi’. I tried to persuade her to stop seeing her ‘nyatsi’ and she pretended to understand.
a paramour; the lover of a married person. Also attributive.
- Derivatives:
- Hence nyatsarize intransitive verb ?nonce, to enter an extra-marital sexual relationship; nyatsism noun, the practice of having extra-marital relationships.1959 L. Longmore Dispossessed 278It is not true to say that among Africans nyatsism is an urban practice. It is most decidedly not. Nyatsism is an age-old practice...The original practice was for a man who was married to ‘nyatsarise’ with a married woman.
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