bundu, noun

/ˈbʊndu/
Forms:
α. bundu;
β. boendoes, bundus /ˈbʊnduːz/.
Also with initial capital.
Origin:
ShonaShow more Etymology unknown; perhaps Shona bundo grasslands.
Note:
The -oe- spelling form is used by those who perceive the derivation to be Afrikaans. Despite the similarity between ‘bundu’ and U.S. English ‘boondocks’ (from Tagalog bundok), it is unlikely that there is any relationship between the two words.
‘The back of beyond’: any area remote from cities and civilization; gopse sense 1 b; gramadoelas; cf. backveld noun sense a. Also attributive, and combination (nonce) bunduland. See also bush noun1 sense 3.
Note:
The plural form ‘bundus’ is found mainly in the English of speakers of Sintu (Bantu) languages.
α.
1939 Outspan 29 Sept. 25I was stationed out in the bundu and I had to shoot all my meat.
1948 O. Walker Kaffirs Are Lively 7After a certain amount of dignified safari-like preparations I headed north for the ‘Bundu’ of the Transvaal.
1949 L. Hunter Afr. Dawn 218‘Now, we’d better find out where we are Butch.’ ‘At the back o’ beyond it looks like.’ ‘Yes, we certainly seem to be properly in the bundu.’
1954 K. Cowin Bushveld, Bananas & Bounty 17I had thought we were standing on a bult in the bundu as we were speaking, but as he pointed out, at least we were only twenty miles from the nearest dorp.
1965 C. Van Heyningen Orange Days 96The dorp where we lived was a mining town, practically in the bundu.
1970 A. Theron More S. Afr. Deep Freezing 173The bundu means any lonely inaccessible part of the South African veld.
1981 B. Mfenyana in M. Mutloatse Reconstruction 298Now the migrants from Egoli play the same role, bringing ‘high culture’ and town talk to the bundu.
1972 Daily Dispatch 30 Mar. 14A..message would have gone around, even up to remote bunduland, scrubtown or shanty.
1984 J. Brooks in Sunday Times 23 Sept. 1The bundu wedding of the year took place at sunset yesterday in a riverside tree-house.
1988 M. Wagamoloto in New Nation 30 June 25Tired of watching children from the bundu, kept illiterate while others wait to reap their sweat.
1991 Sunday Times 14 July 17We in the bundu pay towards city dwellers’ television and radio enjoyment, yet we receive no TSS transmissions.
1994 F.G. Butler in Financial Mail 16 Sept. (Suppl.) 30Oxford and Cambridge were founded and still flourish in the British bundu.
β.
1973 Drum 22 Jan. 18He can work in the big city for the wife and children he left in the bundus.
1977 Drum Aug. 39People outside King Williamstown found themselves without the valuable services of their only doctor after she had been banished to the bundus in the region of Tzaneen in the Northern Transvaal.
1978 Daily Dispatch 27 July 14Amazing what those housewives get up to out there in the boendoes!
1985 Sunday Times 10 Nov. (Mag. Sect.) 15We’re living in a modern society, you know...it’s hard for us to be different unless we go back to the bundus.
1986 B. Ntlemo in Pace May 49It becomes obvious to those who meet him that he may live in the bundus, but the bundus don’t live in him.
1990 F. Khumalo in Weekly Mail 4 May 11The Kosi Bay Nature Reserve, a haven for those who are tired of cities and hanker after the tranquility of the bundus.
‘The back of beyond’: any area remote from cities and civilization; gopse sense 1 b; gramadoelas; cf. backveld noun sense a. Also attributive, and combination (nonce) bunduland.
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rare or nonce
bult, nounn.bundu bash, noun phrasen. phr.
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