Bosjesman, noun
- Forms:
-
α. Show more Boschjesman, Bosheesman, Boshie-man, Boshies-man, Boshis-man, Bosjeman, Bosjesman, Bossies Mann, Bosyesman;
β. Show more Boscheman, Boschman, Boshman;
γ. Show more Boejesman, Bojesman, Boojesman.
- Origin:
- DutchShow more Dutch, bosch or (diminutive) boschje, bosje bush + linking phoneme -s- + man man; originally meaning ‘bush man’ or bandit, Bosjesman was a Dutch name for a member of the San people (see quotation 1992).
obs.
1. Plural Bosjesmanns, Bosjesmans, Bosjesmen. San sense 1. So (obsolete) Bosjes menschen or Bosjes people noun phrases, Bosjes woman noun phrase, and Boschie noun [see -ie]. Also attributive, and figurative. Cf. Bush adjective2.
α.
1786 G. Forster tr. of A. Sparrman’s Voy. to Cape of G.H. I. 197There is another species of Hottentots, who have got the name of Boshies-men, from dwelling in woody or mountainous places.
[1992 Weekend Post 15 Aug. (Leisure) 5The Khoikhoi, their nearest relatives, called her people San; the Dutch named them Bosjemans. They themselves had no name for their ethnic group, referring by name only to their own bands and the few other bands they knew.]
β.
[1773 J. Cook in J. Hawkesworth Acct of Voy. III. 386All..are friendly and peaceable, except one clan that is settled to the eastward, which the Dutch call Boschmen, and these live entirely by plunder, or rather by theft.]
1854 H. Miller Footprints of Creator (1870) 156It is only the squalid savages and degraded boschmen of creation that have their feeble teeth and tiny stings steeped in venom.
γ.
1968 F.C. Metrowich Frontier Flames 10Coenrad’s hatred of the English was well known. He told Gaika they were ‘the Boejesmans of the sea.’
2. rare. San sense 2.
α.
1907 C. Dickens Reprinted Pieces 106His cry of ‘Qu-u-u-u-aaa!’ (Bosjesman for something desperately insulting, I have no doubt).
Plural Bosjesmanns, Bosjesmans, Bosjesmen. San sense 1. So (obsolete) Bosjes menschen or Bosjes people noun phrases, Bosjes woman noun phrase, and Boschie noun [see -ie]. Also attributive, and figurative.
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