dorp

D2O1R1P3
/dɔː(ɹ)p/

noun

A village or small town; a town considered provincial.

UncommonScrabble 7

Meanings

noundorp (plural dorps)

plural dorps

  1. South AfricaA village or small town; a town considered provincial.

    ‘You can't hang about this dorp doing nothing.’

    1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther, published 1974, page 51
    3 more examples

    Omnium rerum viciſſitudo eſt, ones falling, is anothers riſing, and ſo fell it out with that ruind Dorpe or hamlet, which after it had relapſt into the Lordes handes for want of reparations, and there were not men enough in it to defend the ſhore from inuaſion, one Cerdicus a Plaſhing Saxon, that had reueld here and there with his battleaxe, on the bordring bankes of the decrepite ouerworne village now ſurnamed Gorleſtone threw forth his anchor, and with the aſſiſtance of his ſpeare, in ſtead of a pikeſtaffe, leapt agroũd like a ſturdie bruite, and his yeomen bolde caſt their heeles in their necke, and friſkt it after him, […]

    1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 8

    When the aforesaid alderman or another wishes to express mild contemptuosity for his fellows and himself in future I would suggest “old fossils” or “old has beens,” or “old fogies,” then the Sir Galahads that are always riding—or driving—about in this progressive dorp will not have any cause to complain.

    1927 November 25, J. Jingle, “Merely My Musings”, in The Dabbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, page 2, column 3

    I took on a case in the little dorp of Villiers in the Orange Free State.

    1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 186

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*treb-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*trab-
  3. Proto-Germanic*þurpą
  4. Proto-West Germanic*þorp
  5. Old Dutchthorp
  6. Middle Dutchdorp
  7. Dutchdorp
  8. Englishdorp

Borrowed from Dutch dorp, which see for more. Doublet of dorf and thorp, and possibly also of troop and troupe.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

dorp. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dorp

MLA

“dorp.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dorp. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dorp,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dorp.

Source: dorp on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.