The word braai (pronounced "bry", rhyming with the word "dry") is an Afrikaans word, which may be used as either a noun or a verb.

In ESAT it can refer to the cultural practice or it can refer to the name of a stage play

Braai as cultural practice or event

Verb

To braai (or "braaing") means to burn or to roast in a general sense.

Most often used to refer to the popular process of grilling, roasting or barbecuing meat, sausage, "sosaties" (kebabs) or fish (sometimes other foods, corn on the cob, mushrooms, vegetables, bread, etc.) on the coals. The meat done in this fashion is specifically referred to as braaivleis ("grilled meat").

The practice of grilling or barbecuing meat is of course international practice and has been so since the discovery of fire, so it is by no means limited to Southern Africa, but to "have a braai" is nonetheless an enormously popular, and in some ways culturally defining, social custom in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia - as well as among many expatriates across the globe.

This particular name for the practice and the prominent social role it has played in the evolution of South African society in the 20th century, largely originated with the Afrikaans segment of the population. The notion is derived from the pragmatic custom of travelers, explorers, and hunters to roast meat on a fire and coals on hunting and other trips. It has since been adopted as a distinctive local practice by almost all South Africans, rural and urban, from many ethnic backgrounds, over the past 50 years or so.

In this sense "having a braai" is thus a kind of social performance and many arcane rituals and conventions have arisen around the process - as well as an enormous range of commercial activity from numerous recipe books, courses, braai competitions and so on to the sale of all kinds of ingenious equipment for "braaing".

Noun and adjective

"A braai" or "the braai" can either be a reference to the physical construction, or the portable implement, on which you braai the meat ( "he built a braai in the backyard", I bought a new "braai") or the whole event - inclusive of the apparatus and the processes involved in barbecuing meat (and other foods) over coals and consuming it with family, friends and/or colleagues ("I was invited to a braai", "they had a huge braai"). Adjectivally you would speak of things like braai tongs, braai wood, and so on.