Grietjie, noun

/ˈxriki/
Forms:
Creaky, CreecheShow more Also Creaky, Creeche, Creechy, Creeky, Creetje, Greitje, Grietje, Gritje, Krechie.
Origin:
See Ou Grietjie.
historical
Ou Grietjie. Also attributive.
1881 G.F. Austen Diary (1981) 21An attempt was made by the Boers to use an old cannon against the Fort, but..it was soon given up, each erratic and mis-directed shot making old Greitje (as the cannon was named) cant over backwards and giving cause at each discharge for loud ironical cheers and laughter from the garrison at the Fort.
1881 G.F. Austen Diary (1981) 41Firing has continued at intervals during the day, though Greitje has not spoken since this morning.
1899 E. Ross Diary of Siege of Mafeking (1980) 39As a rule the enemy’s big gun Creetje (as we have called her) has given us a good-night shell and we have generally waited for it, but tonight they have let us off.
1899 Mafeking Mail 13 Nov. 3The devotional Boer laying aside his Mauser and giving old ‘Creeche’ a rest.
1900 Mafeking Mail 16 Feb.The Boers..rigged a derrick over ‘Greitje’ preparatory to removal, some of the more hopeful took it as a sign that the damned old blunderbuss was wanted at Pretoria.
1900 S.T. Plaatje Boer War Diary (1973) 63I tried to go to town but ‘Au Sanna’, going strong, caused me to come back and take shelter. I wonder why some people call her ‘Grietje’, as ‘Griet’ for a thing of her potency, would be nearer the mark.
1934 Sunday Times 29 Apr. (Swart)My old father-in-law, Barend Pelser, the man that founded the Staats Artillerie and worked the cannon ‘Grietjie’ at Platrand, brought the last load away from the Capital just as the lancers were galloping in.
1957 D. Grinnell-Milne Baden-Powell at Mafeking 77A big gun, no doubt of it, but not the nightmare monster of Kaffir imagination. The Boers had a pet name for it: ‘Gritje’, diminutive of Margrit. Sounded odd to English ears; when troops first heard it from enemy patrols during the Sunday truce they had written it down as ‘Creechy’ — made them laugh.
1972 Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. V. 396Next in chronological order came the small field-pieces of the ‘Grietje’ type used by the Voortrekkers against the Zulus at Blood River and against the British at Congella.
1973 J. Comaroff Boer War Diary of Sol T. Plaatje 142This is one of the several names given to the Creusot siege-gun. The Boers termed it ‘Gritje’. The British, who found this difficult to pronounce, called it ‘Creechy’ — which later developed into ‘Creaky’.
1974 J. Ploeger in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. X. 249In the early 1850s the Transvaal had two small cannon, nicknamed Grietjie and Weeskind, which had been used in the Battle of Blood River.
1980 B.P. Willan Diary of Siege of Mafeking 39‘Creetje’ was..further corrupted to ‘Creeky’. An alternative version of the origin of the term..has ‘Creechy’ as an abbreviation of ‘Marguerite’, after the gun’s French origin. Other names for the gun..amongst the defenders of Mafeking were ‘Big Ben’, ‘Aunt Sally’, ‘Black Maria’, and ‘Her Ladyship’.
Ou Grietjie. Also attributive.
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Greyshirt, nounn.Grigriqua, plural nounpl. n.
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