kouseband, noun

Forms:
Also kousband, and with initial capital.
Origin:
South African Dutch, DutchShow more South African Dutch, from Dutch kouseband garter, from kouse socks + band band.
obs.
garter snake. Also kousebandje [see -ie].
Note:
Although kousband (slang) is current in Afrikaans, the term is obsolete in South African English, having been replaced by ‘garter snake’.
1789 [see garter snake].
1819 G.M. Keith Voy. 71There are six species about the Cape, namely: the horned snake,..the Kouseband or garter snake.
1849 A. Smith Illust. of Zoo. of S. Afr.: Reptilia Appendix 21Elaps Hygeae...Kouseband of the Cape Colonists. Individuals of this species are found in all parts of Southern Africa.
1860 J. Sanderson in Jrnl of Royal Geog. Soc. XXX. 237Within a fortnight I saw some seven or eight more of the ringhals, and three or four of a small brown kind called the ‘kousband’ [printed kousbaud] or garter-snake.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 280Kousbandje,..Elaps Hygae...A small, vicious snake, marked in transverse bands of scarlet and black, is thus named in the Midland districts.
garter snake. Also kousebandje [see -ie].
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18191913

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koster, nounn.kraaibos, nounn.
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