cafre

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

cafre m (plural cafres)

1. (obsolete, offensive) Kaffir

Further reading

• “cafre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈka.fre/
• Rhymes: -afre
• Hyphenation: cà‧fre

Adjective

cafre

1. feminine plural of cafro

Anagrams

• farce

Macanese

Alternative forms

• cáfre

Etymology

Presumably from Portuguese cafre, from Arabic كَافِر (kāfir, “infidel”).

Noun

cafre (rare)

1. black African
2. any dark-skinned person

Usage notes

• Very rarely used in modern Macanese. African soldiers who did military service in Macau up until the 1960s were referred to by the generic name landins.

Adjective

cafre

1. black

   mui cafre ― black plum

Further reading

• https://www.macaneselibrary.org/pub/english/uipatua.htm#c

Portuguese

Etymology

From Arabic كَافِر (kāfir, “infidel”). Attested since 1516 (Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa).

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈka.fɾi/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈka.fɾi/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈka.fɾe/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈka.fɾɨ/

Noun

cafre m (plural cafres)

1. Kaffir

Descendants

• Macanese: cafre, cáfre

Spanish

Etymology

From Portuguese cafre, from Arabic كَافِر (kāfir, “infidel”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkafɾe/ [ˈka.fɾe]
• Rhymes: -afɾe
• Syllabification: ca‧fre

Noun

cafre m or f by sense (plural cafres)

1. (historical) inhabitant of British Kaffraria, a former British colony in South Africa
2. (Philippines, folklore) ogre or giant believed to smoke cigars and live in old trees, especially balete (banyan) trees

Adjective

cafre m or f (masculine and feminine plural cafres)

1. (historical, relational) of British Kaffraria
2. (colloquial) cruel and barbaric
3. (colloquial) uncouth, boorish

Further reading

• “cafre”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28