mahewu, mageu, noun

/maˈheːwʊ//maˈxe(w)ʊ/
Forms:
amageu, amahewuShow more Also amageu, amahewu, amarewu, magayo, mageo, magewu, magou, magouw, mahayo, maheu, mahleu, mahou, mamaghew, mamarghew, marewa, marewu, marhewu, and with initial capital.
Origin:
IsiXhosa, isiZuluShow more IsiXhosa amarewu (the ‘r’ being pronounced /x/), isiZulu amahewu.
A non-alcoholic home-brewed drink made of thin, slightly fermented maize-meal porridge, often with wheat flour added; a similar, commercially manufactured drink sold in cartons, or in the form of an ‘instant mix’. Cf. tshwala sense a ii.
[1826 A.G. Bain Jrnls (1949) 56In the afternoon Siligho sent us..large wooden dishes containing a mess something like Scotch porridge, but made of Caffre Corn boiled in thick milk. This they called Maghaby.]
c1913 J.M. Orpen Natives, Drink, Labour: Our Duty (pamphlet) 88[Hand-written note] Final best AmaRewu as used in East London Native Location.
1936 R.J.M. Goold-Adams S. Afr. To-Day & To-Morrow 176Sip at a glass from the fermenting vats of mahewu.
1941 ‘R. Roamer’ in Bantu World 1 Mar. 4He says he’ll ask for ginger-beer. I told him it would be better to ask for ‘mahewu’.
1952 Drum Mar. 7In the morning we had had ‘maheu’ (liquid fermented porridge), and in the evenings we had..dry porridge.
1955 J.B. Shephard Land of Tikoloshe 110Of the two kinds of beer in common use, Marewa is the less potent; when it is freshly brewed it has little alcoholic content, being made from finely ground mealie meal which is boiled up into a thin porridge and then allowed to cool. Afterwards a little wheaten meal is stirred into the brew which is left to stand and form a head.
1962 W.D. Hammond-Tooke Bhaca Soc. 20Kaffir corn..is reaped..with a sickle, and a certain amount is gathered, before the reaping proper, for beer and marewu (fermented gruel).
1967 S.M.A. Lowe Hungry Veld 1The Xhosa tribes..provided him with cool refreshment in the form of their mahewu (corn malt drink) and maas (their own most delicious kind of yoghourt).
1973 Evening Post 2 Nov. 7The children had interrupted their lessons at about 10am on Wednesday for the traditional drink of ‘maheu’, the vernacular name for their nutritional drink.
1979 E. Prov. Herald 26 Jan. (Indaba) 7 (advt)Instant Powdered Mahewu. It’s the fantastic new thirst-quenching Mahewu that is ready to mix and drink immediately.
1980 E. Joubert Long Journey of Poppie Nongena 216They’d baked bread and cooked samp mealies and made the sour magou drink with yeast and cornmeal and water.
1982 Pace May 36Mageu was a non-intoxicating African brew...Her friends loved it because it was a food-drink, it quenched your thirst while filling your tummy.
1986 P.A. McAllister Xhosa Beer Drinks. 41Apart from the common utywala (Xhosa), utshwala (Zulu) or bjalwa (Sotho), made in earlier times almost exclusively from sorghum but nowadays mainly from maize, a variety of similar but non-alcoholic beverages were made. These include marhewu (Xhosa), igwele and isibebe (Zulu), and kepye (Lovedu), which are fermented drinks made from maize meal.
1990 C. Laffeaty Far Forbidden Plains 19It gave him great pleasure to press upon her a bowl of magouw, made from fermented mealie-meal.
1991 G. Hofmeyr on TV1, 24 Apr. (The Big Time)Koffie car — oven with wheels — we use them in the location to sell pap and vleis, magheu, smiley.
1994 Sunday Times 18 Sept. 8Packets of mealie-meal, boxes of mageu and a half-empty tray of vet-koek sit on the shelf.
A non-alcoholic home-brewed drink made of thin, slightly fermented maize-meal porridge, often with wheat flour added; a similar, commercially manufactured drink sold in cartons, or in the form of an ‘instant mix’.
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18261994

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IsiXhosa
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mahem, nounn.mahog, nounn.
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