bambus, noun

Forms:
bamboo, bamboosShow more Also bamboo, bamboos, bamboose, bambous.
Plurals:
bambuses, bambusses.
Origin:
DutchShow more Etymology unknown; perhaps from Dutch bamboes bamboo.
obs.
A cylindrical wooden vessel used by Khoikhoi peoples to hold liquids and, with a skin tightly stretched over its mouth, as a drum. See also rommelpot.
1821 Missionary Notices 121Some of the Namacquas make bambooses to contain their milk.
1822 J. Campbell Trav. in S. Afr. Second Journey I. 46They brought us three bamboosses. [Source Note: A bamboos is a deep wooden vessel, something in shape like a tea-canister, but cut out of a block of wood.]
1822 W.J. Burchell Trav. I. 407The jug, or jar, which they call a bambus, is made in the form of a short cylinder, having the mouth or neck contracted generally to about two-thirds. Their most usual capacity is about a gallon.
1824 W.J. Burchell Trav. II. 65The drum was nothing more than a bambus or wooden jug having a piece of wet parchment strained over the top, and containing a little water.
1841 B. Shaw Memorials 23The household utensils are chiefly the bamboos or wooden milk-pail, the calabash, and a kind of wooden spoon.
1841 B. Shaw Memorials 25The rommel pot is a bamboo over which a piece of skin is tightly stretched, and is used as a drum at their (sc. the Namaquas’) public dances.
1841 B. Shaw Memorials 85Having partaken of no dinner, I was very faint; a bamboo of milk was brought me.
1844 J. Backhouse Narr. of Visit 565Bambouses..are a sort of jars made of willow-wood.
1846 R. Moffat Missionary Labours 39Sometimes a kind housewife would hang a bamboos, or wooden vessel filled with milk, on a forked stick, near my head, that I might..drink during the night.
1853 F. Galton Narr. of Explorer in Tropical S. Afr. 66A wooden ‘bamboose,’ a sort of bucket.
1872 E.J. Dunn in A.M.L. Robinson Sel. Articles from Cape Monthly Mag. (1978) 48Taking this lump of fibre in their fingers, they dip it into the ‘bamboos’ or wooden bowl of milk.
1934 P.R. Kirby Musical Instruments of Native Races (1965) 14The true Hottentot drum consisted of either a bambus or wooden milk-jug, or a clay pot, over which a piece of sheepskin or buckskin was tied.
A cylindrical wooden vessel used by Khoikhoi peoples to hold liquids and, with a skin tightly stretched over its mouth, as a drum.
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bamboo fish, noun phrasen. phr.bamvoosie, nounn.
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