[dfwgator]

Too bad the Boers didn’t kick the Brits’ asses during The Boer War.

[Verginius Rufus]

During the Boer War, most non-Brits were rooting for the Boers. No one was giving much thought to the non-white inhabitants of South Africa at that time. The British were seen as bullies. The British won the war but after a while the Afrikaners were in control.

Boer is simply the Dutch word for "farmer"--cognate with (and pronounced the same as) the English word "boor." The English word suffered a decline in connotation because of "sophisticated" people looking down on farmers. The German word for farmer is also a cognate--Bauer.