hans, adjective

/hans/
Forms:
Also occasionally hand.
Origin:
Afrikaans, DutchShow more Afrikaans, ‘hand-fed’, ‘orphaned’, probably from unrecorded Afrikaans or Dutch word hands by hand, hand-reared, formed on hand hand.
‘Hand-reared’; used attributively with the names of various farm animals, especially in the collocation hanslam/ˈhanslam/ [Afrikaans, lam lamb], also hanslammertjie, hanslammetjie/ˈhansˌlamə(r)ki/ [see -ie], or (Englished form) hans lamb: an orphaned or rejected lamb which is reared by hand.
[1891 O.E.A. Schreiner Thoughts on S. Afr. (1923) 166The hand-lamb and a couple more fowls followed.]
1911 Farmer’s Weekly 15 Mar. 19Often the ewes will not have their lambs; in that case these ‘hans’ lambs are taken care of by the housewife, as pets or until they are old enough to graze with the flock.
1916 Farmer’s Weekly 27 Dec. 1584A week after the birth..the mother was killed for the butcher’s shop, and the little lambs either sold for 1s. 6d. as an hans-lamb or their throat cut.
1932 Grocott’s Daily Mail 13 Jan. 1 (advt)1 Filly, 3 years old. 4 Pigs. 3 Hans Sheep.
1958 A. Jackson Trader on Veld 40When ewes died after lambing, the offspring were taken into the homestead and brought up as the ‘hanslam’ (pets). The hanslam ran all over the place.
1963 M. Kavanagh We Merry Peasants 40No shearing, dipping, threshing to watch, hanslammertjie to feed (the little lamb that the ewe would not take).
1970 C. Kinsley Informant, Koegasbrug, Northern CapeHanslam. Lamb reared by farmer’s wife, usually bottle fed.
1970 G. Westwood Bright Wilderness 187It will be a ‘hans’ lamb for you. Since you are going to bottle feed it, it will believe you are its mother.
1970 Argus 3 Oct. (Mag. Sect.) 13No farmyard was ever complete without hans-lammetjies — orphaned lambs — and poultry.
1971 Informant, George, Eastern CapeHe’s a hans ossie — I wouldn’t sell him.
1971 Star 18 Sept. 12Snow followed by devastating cold wind and rain killed 2 000 sheep for some farmers (‘everything but the hanslamb in the kitchen’).
1973 Cape Times 6 June 9Whatever the..link between no rains and big lamb crops, one tangible result is the tremendous number of hanslammertjies being hand-reared this year.
1974 A. Small in S. Gray On Edge of World 183He grew up on this ground..like a little hansskaap (motherless lamb).
1984 Sunday Tribune 16 Dec. (Today) 5Field Marshal Pik Botha’s ‘handlammetjie’, Generalissimo Riaan E—, is filled with righteous wrath about a statement by Chester Crocker.
1989 Grocott’s Mail 4 Apr. 3‘Hans’ lambs and ‘Hans’ kids, orphans all,..were assiduously fed and cared for by enthusiastic youngsters while they awaited transport down to Bathurst to star in the miniature farmyard.
‘Hand-reared’; used attributively with the names of various farm animals, especially in the collocation hanslam/ˈhanslam/ [Afrikaans, lam lamb], also hanslammertjie, hanslammetjie/ˈhansˌlamə(r)ki/ [see -ie], or (Englished form) hans lamb:an orphaned or rejected lamb which is reared by hand.
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Afrikaans
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hangberger, nounn.hansie, nounn. & adjectiveadj.
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