eye, noun

Origin:
British English, South African English, Dutch, AfrikaansShow more Obsolete in British English: probably retained in South African English through the influence of Dutch and subsequently Afrikaans oog, in this sense.
The source of a spring or river. See also fountain.
1799 W. Somerville Narr. of E. Cape Frontier (1979) 43In the Eye of the fountain a substance of metallic appearance is found resembling the ore of Lead.
1838 J.E. Alexander Exped. into Int. I. 159The water continually bubbled up from two or three ‘eyes’ and the heat was of the agreeable temperature for bathing of 103°.
1857 D. Livingstone Missionary Trav. 111A hollow, which anciently must have been the eye of the fountain, but is now filled up with soft tufa.
1871 J. Mackenzie Ten Yrs N. of Orange River 140There are three separate wells or ‘eyes’ to this fountain.
1882 J. Nixon Among Boers 250The so-called eye was a..series of springs in a depression from which bubbled a clear, beautifully limpid water.
1886 G.A. Farini Through Kalahari Desert 61Oh, that is the eye of the fontein, the place where the water from the spring bursts out!
1893 ‘Africanus’ in Cape Illust. Mag. July 416The eye of the fountain is at the foot of a peak.
1933 W. Macdonald Romance of Golden Rand 124The few isolated habitations of the..Voortrekkers, each situated at the fountainheads, or ‘eyes’, of the numerous sparkling streams which flowed north and south from the Rand.
1944 C. Rogers in S. Afr. Geog. Jrnl XXVI. 30A number of ‘eyes’ or springs, south of the Pretoria Series..form the sources of the Groot Marico River.
1952 L.G. Green Lords of Last Frontier 49Only twenty-six miles away is Kaoko Otavi, the largest single ‘eye’ in the Kaokoveld, a magnificent spring with a huge pool below.
1963 S.H. Skaife Naturalist Remembers 109All I had to do was open up the ‘eye’ of the spring and lead the crystal-clear water down to the house and garden by gravity.
1979 S. Afr. Panorama Aug. 25A huge glass-roofed pool is situated above the ‘eye’ or source of the main healing spring which has a daily flow of 2 million gallons.
1985 J. Mitchell Church Ablaze 135Sheets of iron covered this fountain eye to prevent the cattle trampling the mud and closing the eye.
1988 M.M. Hacksley tr. of E. Van Heerden’s Ancestral Voices 180The Eye was bubbling up full of clear water.
The source of a spring or river.
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17991988

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Dutch
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extension, nounn.faction, nounn.
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