‖ballasmandjie, noun

/baˈlasˌmaɪŋki/
Forms:
balast-mandje, ballas mantjeShow more Also balast-mandje, ballas mantje, ballast-mandje.
Plurals:
ballasmandjies, or unchanged.
Origin:
Afrikaans, DutchShow more Afrikaans (earlier Dutch ballastmandje), ballas ballast, load + mandjie small basket.
A bushel basket or lug, used for picking grapes or other fruit.
1873 Cape Monthly Mag. VII. 209A large heap of papers..which, years ago, had been deposited in a large basket (ballast-mandje) on the loft, where they still were.
1910 D. Fairbridge That Which Hath Been (1913) 108In the hot vineyards the ballast-mandjes would be heaped with grapes by the hands of every available man, woman and child on the farm.
[1915 D. Fairbridge Torch Bearer 142A ballast basket of apricots had arrived from a friend, and all day would Mrs. Roux be making preserve, also fig (komfyt), because unless you picked the green figs that very day they would ripen too much.]
1919 M.M. Steyn Diary 253Old friends of the country..send their Cape Town friends baskets of fruit; these baskets or ‘ballas mantje,’ held twice as much as an ordinary basket.
a1930 G. Baumann in Baumann & Bright Lost Republic (1940) 93Mr and Mrs Lopey welcomed me on my arrival, Mrs Lopey immediately spotting the ‘balasmandje’ (bushel basket) of grapes.
1977 Darling 16 Mar. 36At Laborie in Paarl, pick grapes for your wine, rest with your loaded ballasmandjie on the mossy steps of the old cellars.
A bushel basket or lug, used for picking grapes or other fruit.
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Afrikaans
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balie, nounn.Bamangwato, plural nounpl. n.
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