Chevril, noun

Forms:
Also Cheveril, and with small initial.
Origin:
French, EnglishShow more Blend formed on French cheval horse and English trade name Bovril.
historical
An extract of horsemeat made during the siege of Ladysmith in 1900.
1900 H.H.S. Pearse Four Months Besieged 217Colonel Ward has set up a factory..for the conversion of horseflesh into extract of meat under the inviting name of Chevril. This is intended for use in hospitals...It is also ordered that a pint of soup made from this Chevril shall be issued daily to each man.
1900 R.G. Archibald in R.E. Gordon Honour Without Riches (1978) 275The Authorities are now issuing a concoction of flesh boiled down into a kind of ‘Bovril’ — it is called ‘Cheveril’, but the stuff does not take on at all and the smell of it in a few hours time is just awfully too-too — it’s unfit for food.
1900 G.C. Musgrave In S. Afr. with Buller 334After many experiments pure essence of horse was concocted, the locomotive house being improvised as a factory. The animals were shot at one end, emerging from the front door in jars and bottles labelled chevril. This horse-extract, trade-marked ‘Resurgam’..provided a nourishing liquid food for the besieged.
1972 Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. VI. 519Soon bread was reduced to a daily 230 grams,..the most sustaining item of diet being a pint of chevril (extract of horse).
1979 E. Drummond Burning Land 312A young inventive lieutenant had constructed an apparatus in one of the rail sheds that compounded horse-flesh into a tasty and sustaining essence immediately patented as ‘Chevril’.
An extract of horsemeat made during the siege of Ladysmith in 1900.
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19001979