emmer, noun

Forms:
Also emer, emir.
Origin:
Dutch, AfrikaansShow more Dutch, later Afrikaans.
A bucket; obsolete, a unit of measurement, especially for farm produce. Occasionally with defining word, melkemmer /ˈmelkˌemə/ [Afrikaans, melk milk], a milking bucket.
1817 G. Barker Journal. 20 JuneTwo emmers of barley were sown whilst I was at Grams-town.
1850 R.G.G. Cumming Hunter’s Life I. 161I purchased eight ‘emirs’ or measures of wheat from one of the Griquas.
1860 J. Sanderson in Jrnl of Royal Geog. Soc. XXX. 252He had sold nearly all [the peaches] he had dried at 3s. per emmer, or 24s. per muid.
1866 E.L. Price Jrnls (1956) 190Ma-Sebele & Sara Paul came down to see me — and a servant carrying an emer full of corn as a present from the former.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 164Emmer,..In the early days of the Colony the bucket was often found to be a convenient measure when bartering.
1971 Baraitser & Obholzer Cape Country Furn. 257From the melkbalie milk was poured into a melkemmer (milking bucket), a wooden bucket with two or three metal hoops and a metal handle.
1979 M. Matshoba Call Me Not a Man 80First rinsing the baby pail outside, she emptied the hot water into it, cooled it with two jugs from the emmer under the kitchen table and went back to her room.
A bucket; obsolete, a unit of measurement, especially for farm produce. Occasionally with defining word, melkemmer /ˈmelkˌemə/ [Afrikaans, melk milk], a milking bucket.
Derivatives:
Hence emmerful  noun [+ English -ful; or translation of Afrikaans emmervol], a bucketful.
1874 A. Edgar in Friend 18 JuneMr Boshoff said they had stolen about an ‘emmerful’ of bojala or Kafir beer.
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18171979

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