Apartheid

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /əˈpɑːtheɪt/, /əˈpɑːthaɪt/
• US enPR: É™-pärtʹhÄ«t, IPA: /əˈpɑɹthaɪt/
• US enPR: É™-pärtʹhāt, IPA: /əˈpɑɹtheɪt/
• Note: the h is very often not pronounced because of the difficulty of following /t/ with /h/, but the sequence is not pronounced as the digraph th (/ð/, /θ/).
• US enPR: É™-pärʹtÄ«d, IPA: /əˈpɑɹ.taɪd/

Origin

From Afrikaans apartheid (1929 in a South African socio-political context), literally “separateness”, “apartness”, from Dutch apart ("separate") + suffix -heid, cognate of English -hood.

Full definition of apartheid

Noun

1. (historical) The discriminatory policy of racial separation used by South Africa from 1948 to 1990.
• 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, pages 127-8:The premise of apartheid was that whites were superior to Africans, Coloureds and Indians, and the function of it was to entrench white supremacy forever.
2. (by extension) Any similar policy of racial separation/segregation and discrimination.
• 1963, Justice William O. Douglas, concurring, Lombard v. Louisiana (373 U.S. 267):When the doors of a business are open to the public, they must be open to all regardless of race if apartheid is not to become engrained in our public ....
3. (by extension) A policy or situation of segregation based on some specified attribute.
• 2008, Peter Hewitt, Kenya Cowboy: A Police Officer's Account of the Mau Mau Emergency (ISBN 1920143238), page 64:Fifteen minutes drive to the Brown Trout was guaranteed to satisfy my appetite because there, as with other clubs and hotel bars, a form of sex apartheid was practised. The males assembled in the region of the bar and the opposite gender either sat discreetly detached or strayed outside to gossip gaily among themselves.
• 2009, Moorthy Muthuswamy, Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War (ISBN 1615921389), page 120:In these annual reports, the religious apartheid practices in India are not mentioned at all.

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