kat, noun

/kat/
Forms:
Also with initial capital.
Origin:
DutchShow more Dutch, raised battlement, siege defence works.
1. The fortification wall which divides the Castle into an inner and outer court. Also attributive.
1946 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Cask of Jerepigo (1972) 89An interesting feature of the Castle is the kat, or curtain, a cross-wall about 2 yards in length and 40 feet in height and 10 feet thick, which was erected by the original builders as an afterthought, in order to divide the courtyard into two halves for additional safety.
1955 A. Delius Young Trav. in S. Afr. 79The great square in the interior of the Castle was..cut in two by a kat — a big dividing block.
1965 A. Gordon-Brown S. Afr. Heritage I. 9Modern photograph of the ‘Kat’ balcony — a masterpiece of the architect Thibault and the early Cape sculptor, Anton Anreith.
1971 C. De Bosdari Cape Dutch Houses & Farms 48The space within the walls [of the Castle] was divided in 1691 into two courtyards by a ‘Kat’ or wall on which cannon could be mounted — whence the name of the Balcony later built onto it.
1974 S. Afr. Panorama July 18Guests awaited the president in ‘The Kat’, where a buffet supper was served.
1979 S. Afr. Panorama July 8In 1691 the courtyard within the Castle was divided in two by the ‘Kat’, a crosswall...The most commanding feature of the first courtyard is the beautiful Kat balcony at the entrance to the Council Chamber.
2. transferred sense. The ornate wooden balcony at the centre of the kat fortification wall in the Castle.
1969 I. Vaughan Last of Sunlit Yrs 50De Kat, the place where the Burghers, two centuries ago, had pasted their placaats and read their announcements.
1973 Beeton & Dorner in Eng. Usage in Sn Afr. Vol.4 No.2, 73Kat, the,..Porch forming part of the Castle in Cape Town, the oldest fortification in S. Afr.
1990 Light Yrs Vol.1 No.3, 9 (caption)One of the most well-known features of the Castle, De Kat.
The fortification wall which divides the Castle into an inner and outer court. Also attributive.
The ornate wooden balcony at the centre of the kat fortification wall in the Castle.
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Dutch
kasi, nounn. & adjectiveadj.katdoring, nounn.
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