Liverpool, noun

Origin:
Alluding to the industrial growth of Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), considered comparable to that of the port of Liverpool in England.
obs.
Usually in the phrases Liverpool of the Cape, Liverpool of South Africa, the city of Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) (Eastern Cape); PE.
1844 J. Evatt in R. Godlonton Mem. of Brit. Settlers 73A rising City — the Liverpool of the colony; and I trust that I do not presume when I say, I hope to live to see Port Elizabeth the Capital of the Colony.
1870 H.H. Dugmore Reminisc. of Albany Settler (1958) 15Algoa Bay spread its broad bosom, and ship after ship bore its living freight to the last anchorage...The ‘Liverpool of the Cape’ was not yet in existence, and a dreary barren looking waste met many a disappointed eye.
1881 F.R. Statham Blacks, Boers & Brit. 78Port Elizabeth, the ‘Liverpool of South Africa,’ is the next point we have to aim at.
1884 Cape Law Jrnl I. 6Mercantile men..have..vigorously pushed colonial commerce from the Liverpool of the Cape Colony to the distant and inaccessible parts of South Africa.
1888 Cape Punch 18 July 7Possibly I, Tony Pearson, the relict of the South African Liverpool, might not have been born, dontcherknow, a poet.
1891 W. Selwyn Cape Carols 154The Liverpool of Africa Has reached a sorry pass When country cousins laugh, ‘ha! ha! ‘Yer can’t pay fur yer gas.’
1893 Cape Illust. Mag. Jan. 182[Port Elizabeth] is undoubtedly the principal maritime centre of South Africa, and has very aptly been termed ‘The Liverpool of the Cape’.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 297Liverpool of South Africa, Port Elizabeth is sometimes so designated, but whether the designation is intended to be taken humorously, or as being anticipative, is somewhat uncertain.
1934 C.P. Swart Supplement to Pettman. 107Liverpool of South Africa, The popular name for Port Elizabeth, the chief trading centre of the Cape Province.
Usually in the phrases Liverpool of the Cape, Liverpool of South Africa,the city of Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) (Eastern Cape); PE.
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list, verb transitivev.load shedding, noun phrasen. phr.
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