apartheid

views updated Jun 08 2018

apartheid the former South African policy of racial segregation of other groups from the white inhabitants. Adopted by the successful Afrikaner National Party as a slogan in the 1948 election, apartheid extended and institutionalized existing racial segregation.

The word is recorded from the 1940s, and comes from Afrikaans, meaning literally ‘separateness’.

apartheid

views updated Jun 27 2018

apartheid XX. — Afrikaans, f. Du apart (— F. à part, see prec.) + -heid -HOOD.