Khoikhoi
/ˈkɔɪ.kɔɪ/noun
A member of a traditionally pastoral Indigenous people of southwestern Africa, especially Namibia and South Africa.
Did you know?Khoikhoi is an English rendering of a Khoekhoe self-designation; the reduplication intensifies the word khoe, meaning “person” or “people,” rather than invoking magic or the supernatural.
Etymological Timeline
Precolonial period
Khoekhoe
khoekhoe
“People; human beings; often interpreted as “real people” or “people of people””
17th Century
Dutch
Hottentot
“A colonial Dutch term applied to the Khoekhoe; its exact original motivation is disputed and it is now widely considered offensive”
17th–18th Century
English
Hottentot
“An English borrowing used historically for the Khoekhoe people”
19th Century
English
Koi-koin
“An alternative scholarly rendering of the Khoekhoe self-name”
Modern English
English
Khoikhoi
“A modern English ethnonym for the Khoekhoe people, generally preferred over the colonial term Hottentot”