Meanings
plural backvelds
- AfricaSouthernBackward and unsophisticated rural areas.
And how was she to know that one may live in London, or New York, a village in Yorkshire, or a dorp in the backveld […] but one behaves inevitably, inexorably, exactly like everyone else.
1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther, published 1974, page 2321 more example
If it hadn't been for Susan he might have ended his life in some small, forgotten backveld village, quietly content to teach a bit of history and geography to one generation of school children after the other […].
1979, André Brink, A Dry White Season, Vintage, published 1998, page 20
Origin
Cite this entry
backveld. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/backveld
“backveld.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/backveld. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “backveld,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/backveld.
Source: backveld on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.