gedoente, noun

Origin:
Afrikaans.
colloquial
1. A fuss; a complicated matter.
1970 E. Mundell Informant, Pearston, Eastern CapeNow that was a big gedoente loading the cow onto the little lorry.
1971 Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)Jean says the builders are rampant in her house, and it’s such a gedoente.
1993 M.-A. Finnemore Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)There was a whole gedoente about it.
2. A thing; a creation.
1972 B. Mills Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)Its a chair that’s also a ladder — one of those gedoentes.
1982 Rhodeo (Rhodes Univ.) 6 Apr. 13Woman’s lib can be just as boring. But everybody must do their little gedoente.
1993 S. Dikeni in Bua Dec. 32Marilyn Martin..just went on in Xhosa as if it was one of those things. And the occasion was not a hierjy gedoente nie, it was some important whatchacallit in the Grahamstown festival.
A fuss; a complicated matter.
A thing; a creation.
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