plural relations
A South African historical euphemism used during the apartheid era as official bureaucratic language for the system of racial segregation and white-minority rule enforced between 1948 and 1994.
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A South African historical euphemism used during the apartheid era as official bureaucratic language for the system of racial segregation and white-minority rule enforced between 1948 and 1994. The deliberately bland phrase 'plural relations' was used by the apartheid government to frame its racist policies as neutral administrative management of different population groups. It is now recognised as a chilling example of how language can sanitise atrocity.
The apartheid government's Ministry of Plural Relations and Development was one of the most notorious examples of doublespeak in modern political history.
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(South Africa, historical) apartheid.
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- apartheid60%
(South Africa, historical) The policy of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1994.
- apartheid57%
(by extension) Any similar policy of racial segregation or separation and discrimination, particularly when in favor of a minority rule.
- apartheid57%
(by extension) A policy or situation of segregation based on some specified attribute.
- plaas56%
South African term, originally Afrikaans, for a farm or rural property — used across South African English to refer to farmland or a working agricultural estate. The word carries deep cultural weight in South Africa, tied to Afrikaner farming heritage, rural life, and the complicated history of land in the country. Whether it's a sprawling wine farm in the Western Cape or a maize operation on the Highveld, it's a 'plaas.' The word sounds exactly like what it describes — solid, grounded, unpretentious.