Hy Het Sy Gat Gesien - He Came Short
The Afrikaans word ‘gat’ has more than one meaning. The first refers to a hole in the ground or in any other object while the second meaning is more crude. It refers to a person’s or animal’s backside; more specifically his a**hole.The expression ‘Hy het sy gat gesien’ can thus be translated to English in more than one way:
A) He saw his hole
B) He saw his grave (as a grave is a hole in the ground)
C) He saw his a**.
The third form is the popular form for at least the last 50 years since somebody added ‘without a mirror’, and mostly used in the future tense. Effectively saying you will see your backside without at mirror; meaning that you will come short or that you will not get it right.
But this is completely out of line with the original saying which refers to a hole in the ground; more specifically an open grave.
Towards the end of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) many Boers surrendered and were called ‘hensoppers’ meaning ‘hands uppers’ or traitors. The ‘hensoppers’ were often executed by the passing Boer commandos.
Such a traitor was condemned to death by court-martial. They were forced to dig their own graves and then, while facing the grave, shot from behind to drop into the hole.
If somebody would later ask: “What happened to so and so?” the answer would have been “Hy het sy gat gesien”, meaning that he saw his grave (while being shot as a traitor).
So, in the about 30 to 60 years since the war, this expression had evolved into something with a completely different meaning. Languages are truly alive and this is especially true In the case of a young language like Afrikaans which was only recognized as a language about a hundred years ago or so.
But then it is also a very versatile expression with other meanings like for an instance:
Die bottel het sy gat gesien. Meaning
The bottle - Die Bottel - is empty.
or
Die suiker het sy gat gesien.
The sugar - Die Suiker - is finished.
It is estimated that about 25 million people worldwide now can fully understand and speak Afrikaans.
Comments (40)
I guess that's what's happening to me.. seeing my own
holegrave!That is bad. Who did you betray?
Take it and copy it into your browser and you can hopefully see it?
This is from a Norwegian news site.
Not quite being a traitor but somehow I'm feeling the close proximity of my own grave.
Take care Nice blog
How are you my friend.
I will look at tour link a bit later. This time of the day connectivity is murder. I battle to load CS pages. I must really get a new ISP.
The maybe it is because you did nothing.
Don't think like that. Tomorrow you will see things different again.
Thanks
Anyway, I kept checking "the two." How come nothing happened to those? This is not fair!!!
A little stupid advise:
Live each day as if it is your last.
Do what you have to do and enjoy the rest of it as best as you can.
It works for me.
Yes, You spent some time here in SA. You would have come across the expression. It is used by the English speaking as well.
I'm busy selling my house and when I get a new address I will have a better signal than here on the far edge of the town. Your blog is next. As soon as I'm done here
Ok, I understand your problem with the pair. I will deal with it later tonight.
You will find shooting somebody from behind is not so easy. I prefer to let people fall into their own graves while digging it by leaving plenty of banana peels around. Make it easy for them to slip.
And its not stupid, it makes good sense for me and thanks again.
feel better already
Lj
Don't allow today to spill over into tomorrow for if you have to spend half of today to fix yesterday, you will not have the time to ensure a carefree tomorrow. Yesterday is not dead and gone. It will always come back to you. And what was left undone will haunt you until it is done.
While we have a large Portuguese community in SA - mostly from Mozambique and Angola - you would have had a hard time in SA if you could not speak Afrikaans or English. There are very few people in this country who cannot speak either of them.
never had hard time in SA... ever!! maybe because the different and positive attitude toward life in general i found in Africa (SA included)...
And now he saw it without a mirror. That takes some doing. Then they say we should be more flexible. Net om jou gat te sien.
South Africa is known for the hospitality of the people. A great country to visit. It is a pity we have such a bad crime rate but it is getting better slowly.
Yes, ouch it is! Then people wonder why I am rigid and inflexible.
Yes in deed. But it is the speed that amazed me. I was born fifty years after the end of the war and I first encountered the expression when I was about ten. Even then the expression was used is it is today. When the cause for the expression had died the expression live on in another form. Crazy!
hi baby......
sorry love i really don't know Afrikaans.....
You don't need to baby. What is said here applies to all languages for they are alive.
Language is very interesting as words have completely different meaning in different cultures. It is interesting to see how words evolved.
Thanks for the lesson in language...it is interesting how words develop meaning by the history of its people...like in the US to be a Benedict Arnold is a traitor...it stems from their history...I just may use the word gat!!
Yes but it can be a very confusing word. Telling somebody his hole is big can also mean his backside is getting bigger.
While there may me no 'gat's in the brain many a brain sit in the gat.
Use it if you wish but remember it is a soft g like the Dutch use and the 'a' is not pronounced such as in cat but as in what.