nenta, noun

/ˈnentə/
Forms:
Also ninta, t’nenta, and with initial capital.
Origin:
Khoikhoi, South African EnglishShow more Khoikhoi plant name (the t’ in the South African English variant t’nenta representing a click in the original language).
1. krimpsiektebos, see krimpsiekte sense 2. Also attributive, and occasionally combination  nentabossie/-bɔsi/ [Afrikaans, bos bush + -ie].
1796 C.R. Hopson tr. of C.P. Thunberg’s Trav. II. 97The Hottentots called by the name of Nenta, a plant (Zygophyllum herbaceum repens), which was said to be poisonous to sheep, as also another, a shrub of the same genus, (Zygophyllum sessilifolium.)
1896 R. Wallace Farming Indust. of Cape Col. 95The t’nenta, Lessertia annularis, Burch., is an insignificant, purplish-flowered species, at times seen in quantity in the gebroken veld, where, if consumed, it poisons goats and sheep.
1897 Cape of G.H. Agric. Jrnl 308 (Pettman)The Russian moufik contracts neurotis through continued eating of the leguminous Lathyrus;..and the Cape goat gets it..from an undetermined leguminous Nenta.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 339Nenta, (Hot. *Nenta, with initial click.) Cotyledon ventricosa. This plant is supposed to be the cause of a disease fatal to sheep and goats.
1917 R. Marloth Dict. of Common Names of Plants 61Nenta’bossie, (Krimpziekte-plant). MacOwen ascribes this disease to Lessertia annularis, but almost all farmers are of the opinion that it is caused by Cotyledon Wallichii and some allied species, e.g., C. ventricosa.
1978 E. Prov. Herald 6 Mar. 8The plant which causes the sickness variously known as lêsiekte, krimpsiekte, nenta poisoning or cotyledonsis, had been identified as Cotyledon teretifolia or Cotyledon campanulata.
1993 Milton & Dean in Afr. Wildlife Vol.47 No.1, 27They (sc. Karoo leopard tortoises) swallowed large chunks of the succulent stems of ninta (Tylecodon wallichii), a plant protected against most other herbivores by its poisonous leaves and spiny stem.
2. Pathology. krimpsiekte sense 1.
1905 D. Hutcheon in Flint & Gilchrist Science in S. Afr. 358Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis or ‘Nenta’ in Goats.
1910 Cape of G.H. Agric. Jrnl 302 (Pettman)The well-known disorder in sheep and goats known at the Cape as Nenta.
1910 Cape of G.H. Agric. Jrnl 12 Sept. (Pettman)Whether t’Nenta and Stiff-ziekte are names for one and the same thing differing in degree, I cannot say.
1937 Handbk for Farmers (Dept of Agric. & Forestry) 462Krimpsiekte or Nenta.
1976 Mönnig & Veldman Handbk on Stock Diseases 208Cotyledon Poisoning (Krimpsiekte). This disease (also known as Nenta) is caused by several different species of Cotyledon.
1979 T. Gutsche There Was a Man 20Some goats now suffering from a disease called Nenta.
krimpsiektebos, see krimpsiekte sense 2. Also attributive, and occasionally combination  nentabossie/-bɔsi/ [Afrikaans, bos bush + -ie].
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