overberg, noun

Origin:
South African DutchShow more South African Dutch, over over + berg mountain.
Any region beyond mountains; used particularly in the Western Cape, and in Kwa-Zulu-Natal (see quotation 1973). Also attributive, and occasionally as adverb.
1822 W.J. Burchell Trav. I. 88The districts situated, with respect to the metropolis, beyond these mountains (sc. the Hottentots Holland), and also their inhabitants and produce, are often distinguished in a general way by the word overbergsch (tramontane.)
1823 W.W. Bird State of Cape of G.H. 99The pleasure and draft waggon of the country..is..the general and only convenient way of travelling through the peninsula and Overberg in the distant drostdys.
1823 W.W. Bird State of Cape of G.H. 160Shooting parties to the most distant parts of the colony, on the other side of the mountains (overberg), frequently take place.
1851 J.F. Churchill Diary. (Killie Campbell Africana Library MS37) 13 MayBusiness pretty brisk at Maritzburg with the Overberg Traders.
1859 R.J. Mann Col. of Natal 170The trade with the Dutch States beyond the Drakensberg, which is technically known as the Overberg trade.
1874 in A.M.L. Robinson Sel. Articles from Cape Monthly Mag. (1978) 214The settlers who removed to the inland districts, then designated the ‘Over-berg’ (beyond the mountains), were absolutely blocked up in an isolated world of their own.
1879 R.J. Atcherley Trip to Boërland 61The sale of rum to over-berg travellers.
1900 Blackwood’s Mag. (U.K.) Mar. 324A railway which derives the bulk of its revenue from the overberg trade.
1902 E. Prov. Herald 3 Mar. (Pettman)Sir Albert Hime, the Natal Premier, interviewed on the question of congestion of traffic and stoppage of permits for civil trade Overberg, said..the Government had taken action.
1973 Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. VIII. 414Overberg,..Old name of the coastal belt in the south-western part of the Cape Province east of the Hottentots Holland Mountains. Formerly the name was applied more particularly to the district of Swellendam, but it came to include the districts of Caledon and Bredasdorp. The old Dutch name is still in daily use for this region...The name ‘Overberg’ was also used by the Voortrekkers in Natal to indicate the area beyond the Drakensberg, north of the Orange River.
1985 L. Du Buisson in Avenue May 36The debate..occasionally drew derisive comment from what Natalians were now calling the ‘Overberg’ — meaning the rest of South Africa.
1987 Argus 14 Mar.He is a hero not just in Caledon, but in the Cape Flats, the Boland, the Overberg and all along the Southern Cape coast as far as Port Elizabeth and East London.
1990 E. Parker in You 16 Aug. 22The little Overberg town (sc. Swellendam), shaken and split by the sordid poison tragedy, is all abuzz over the fairytale romance.
1993 G. Etherington in Weekend Post 12 June (Leisure Suppl.) 4The Overberg is the country stretching between the Hottentots Holland and Mossel Bay.
Any region beyond mountains; used particularly in the Western Cape, and in Kwa-Zulu-Natal (see quotation 1973). Also attributive, and occasionally as adverb.
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18221993