apartheid

Definitions

An Afrikaans word: apart ('apart, separate,' itself from Dutch/French and ultimately the same part root) + -heid (a suffix equal to English -hood/-ness). So apartheid is literally 'apart-hood,' the state of keeping races forcibly separated. It entered English directly from South Africa in the 1940s.

Why It Means This

apartheid is a striking foreign member of the part family. Built in Afrikaans from apart + -heid ('-hood'), it literally names 'the state of being apart.' Knowing the apart inside it makes the otherwise opaque word instantly readable: a system designed to keep people apart.

Common Collocations

• 1.apartheid regime种族隔离政权
• 2.anti-apartheid反种族隔离
• 3.end apartheid结束种族隔离
• 4.apartheid era种族隔离时代

Example Sentences

• 1.

  Apartheid divided South Africa for decades.

• 2.

  He spent years in prison fighting apartheid.

• 3.

  Apartheid was finally dismantled in the early 1990s.