Kaffir
A kaffir (Arabic kāfir; also Caffer, caffre, kaffer, Kaffre, kafir, kaphar, kaphir, kafari) refers to, in Islamic contexts, to a non-Muslim, explicitly to a "unbeliever" (disbeliever", non-believer, denier, pagan) or an "infidel" (not of the "one true faith").
Negroids
In Africa, especially Rhodesia and South Africa, a kaffer (from the Dutch, although borrowed from Portuguese cafre) refers to a black in general, notably to a (Southern African) Bantu, or, as of the 16th century (attested since 1516, in: Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa), to a barbarian member of the Nguni people of southern Africa, especially a Xhosa. Also for an inhabitant of British Kaffraria, a former British colony in South Africa. This word was widely used in the nineteenth and twentieth century.
Classification as derogatory
Since the 21st century it has been regarded by politically correct, woke sources as "derogatory".
References
- ↑ View of a Cafre, in: Description de l'Univers by Alain Manesson Mallet, Paris, 1683 (under "*Africa*")