Trek – The African Roots of a Long Distance Word

Hello,

I’ve not covered many words with African roots here on Wordfoolery, but of course English has borrowed words from that continent, the language loves to acquire words from all around the globe. Hence, this week’s word is trek, a loanword with roots in South Africa and Dutch.

Muddy boots after an Irish trek

Trek joined the English dictionary in the mid 1800s to describe a stage of journey made by a wagon pulled by oxen. It came from the same term in Afrikaans which had Dutch roots – the verb trekken meaning a march or a journey. Trekken had evolved from the earlier Middle Dutch word trecken. The word trek was particularly associated with the Groot Trek (between 1835 and 1846) when more than 10,000 Boers (Dutch speaking colonists) migrated from the British controlled Cape Colony to the interior of South Africa to settle land and find independence from British rule. Groot in this case translates as great, rather than being a reference to a charming character in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies.

Over time the word trek has come to be used for any long or strenuous journey. With the creation of “Star Trek” in 1966 that trek could even be into outer space and by 1973 the fans of the show popularised the term trekkie for their devoted group. Trekkie had been used since the 1880s to describe a group of people on a trek in South Africa.

Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)

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