bosch, bos, noun

/ˈbɒʃ//bɔs/
Forms:
Also bosh.
Origin:
Dutch, AfrikaansShow more Dutch bosch, Afrikaans bos, forest, bush.
1. noncount. bush noun1 sense 1 a. Also figurative.
1816 G. Barker Journal. 15 Apr.Assisted in making a path toward Lombard’s Post, thro’ the bosch & at the drift.
1834 T. Pringle Afr. Sketches 214After proceeding a mile or two down the river, we struck into a path on the left hand, which led us into the bosom of the jungle, or bosch, as it is termed in this country.
1862 Lady Duff-Gordon Lett. from Cape (1925) 113The people are burning the veld all about...The ashes of the bosch serve as manure for the young grass, which will sprout in the autumn rains.
1905 H. Bolus in C.A. Smith Common Names (1966) 159(Bosch) includes a great variety of plants, the short shrubs of the Karroo, the knee-high boschjes of the Western Province, the dwarf trees of the mimosa type, the dense scrub of our coasts, and the majestic timber trees of our natural forest.
1982 Daily Dispatch 11 Jan. 6You can spot the mistakes of the newcomer down the road who bought that piece of bos they call a farm.
1990 Style June 109If you disappear into the bos..you have no claim to the doctorate.
2. obsolete. bush noun1 sense 2 a.
1820 J. Ayliff Journal. 19On the 24th they were found Dead a very little Distance from their home in a Bosch.
1828 T. Pringle Ephemerides 191At length, we fairly tracked him into a large bosch, or straggling thicket of brushwood and evergreens.
3. combinations
a. obsolete In the names of fauna, usually indicating a preference for a bushy habitat:
boschvogel, the bulbul Andropadus importunus (called ‘sombre bulbul’ in G.L. Maclean’s Roberts’ Birds of Sn Afr., 1993);
boschbok, boschvark, see as main entries.
1884 Layard & Sharpe Birds of S. Afr. 204The ‘Boschvogel’ as it is called, is not very rare in the neighbourhood of Cape Town, and also occurs at the Knysna.
1901 Stark & Sclater Birds of S. Afr. 66The Bosch-vogel is seldom found away from the dense bush, and owing to its sombre colour and shy habits is not easily seen or discovered.
b. An element in place names, as Boschheuwel, Rondebosch, Stellenbosch. See also bush noun1 sense 2 b.
1951 L.G. Green Grow Lovely 136The Alabama-bos where the Malays held their annual picnics.
1989 P.E. Raper Dict. of Sn Afr. Place Names 471Rondebosch,..Suburb of Cape Town...The name, Dutch for ‘round thicket’ refers to a circular clump or grove of trees on the banks of the Liesbeek known at the the time of Van Riebeeck as ‘t ronde doorn bosjen’, ‘the round thorn bush’.
bush noun1 sense 1 a. Also figurative.
An element in place names, as Boschheuwel, Rondebosch, Stellenbosch.
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figurative or allusive
obsolete or obsolescent
bosberaad, nounn.boschbok, nounn.
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