kaffir beer, noun phrase

Origin:
EnglishShow more kaffir + English beer.
obsolescent, offensive
b. tshwala sense a i and a ii. b. see quotation 1898.
1837 R.B. Hulley in F. Owen Diary (1926) 174About a hundred pots filled with Kaffir beer were brought and placed before the..men.
1841 B. Shaw Memorials 39Kaffir beer is made by malting, drying, grinding, boiling, and fermenting millet.
1851 R.J. Garden Diary. I. (Killie Campbell Africana Library MS29081) 29 JuneThe Queen..drinks a great deal of Caffir beer & indeed takes little other sustenance.
1866 J. Leyland Adventures 53The chief Mahura..sent us some Kaffir beer, (made from Kaffir corn).
1875 D. Leslie Among Zulus 78Kaffir beer is, in substance and taste, something like butter-milk, and about as intoxicating as thin gruel would be if made with sauterne and water.
1880 E.F. Sandeman Eight Months in Ox-Waggon 95Kaffir beer..has anything but an inviting appearance, in colour a pale pink, and very thick. It is made of Kaffir corn fermented with various herbs, and has a sour taste.
1883 J.A. Chalmers in Blue Bk for Col. No.G4, 136The drink of Kafir beer has changed within the last few years, and it is no longer what it used to be among the Kafirs.
1894 E. Glanville Fair Colonist 139The men..returned with a great calabash of Kaffir beer. This beverage, brewed from the red corn, is not intoxicating in itself, but, unhappily, it is seldom now taken in its pure state.
1898 Act 28 in Stat. of Cape of G.H. (1906) 3959‘Kaffir beer’ shall, in addition to the liquor commonly so-called, include fermented liquor made from prickly pears..and fermented liquor made from honey.
1900 S.T. Plaatje Boer War Diary (1973) 68Kaffir beer to a common Morolong is ‘meat vegetables and tea’ rolled into one, and they can subsist entirely on it for a long time.
1925 E. Prov. Herald 29 July 12Native women were charged with being in possession of Kafir beer at Korsten.
1932 Grocott’s Daily Mail 5 Apr. 2We..humbly request the local authorities of Pretoria humanely to consider the advisability of allowing a limited quantity of Kaffir beer for domestic consumption.
1943 ‘J. Burger’ Black Man’s Burden 100Concoctions that contain ingredients such as boot polish, carbide, raw spirit, or anything else that will supply the necessary ‘kick’ to kaffir beer.
c1948 H. Tracey Lalela Zulu p.xThe municipal monopoly in the brewing of kaffir beer, made usually from millet or maize, from which much of the revenue of municipal administration is derived, must necessarily result in boot-legging.
1950 Report of Commission to Enquire into Acts of Violence Committed by Natives at Krugersdorp (UG47–1950) in L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. (1963) 130The trade in these concoctions has grown and flourishes because the urban Native has now acquired a taste for something stronger than kaffir beer.
1959 L. Longmore Dispossessed 224For births, ancestor-worship ceremonies, and so on, kaffir beer is bought from the municipal breweries and partaken of with due ceremony and circumspection by many urban Africans.
1966 L.G. Berger Where’s Madam 80Kaffir beer..plays a very important part in the religious and social life of the Bantu, and it is imperative that..he can obtain this most important beverage in a legal way.
1972 Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. VI. 263There has..been legislation to supersede the traditional term ‘Kaffir beer’ by ‘Bantu beer’.
1976 A. Delius Border 179There was no welcoming committee to see us in, not so much as a dish of sour milk or Kafir beer.
1992 [see kaffirboom].
tshwala sense a i and a ii.
see quotation 1898.
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obsolete or obsolescent
derogatory or offensive
kaffir bean, noun phrasen. phr.kaffirboetie, nounn.
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