peppercorn, noun

Origin:
See quotation 1857.
In the plural, or attributive (especially in the phrase peppercorn hair): hair growing in sparse, tight, curly tufts, as characteristic of the Khoikhoi and San peoples; cf. peperkorrel. Also transferred sense.
[1857 D. Livingstone Missionary Trav. 379The Bushman and the Hottentots are exceptions,..for both the shape of their heads and growth of wool are peculiar — the latter, for instance springs from the scalp in tufts with bare spaces between, and when the crop is short, resembles a number of black peppercorns stuck on the skin.]
1868 J. Chapman Trav. I. 16Bushmen with peppercorn heads.
1893 F.C. Selous Trav. & Adventure 107High cheek-bones, oblique eyes, and peppercorn hair.
1905 W.H. Tooke in Flint & Gilchrist Science in S. Afr. 95The woolly hair of the Hottentot is a dense dead black; the peppercorn tufts of the Bushman are a rusty brown.
1910 D. Fairbridge That Which Hath Been (1913) 192In the place of hair small pepper-corns were scattered over his head.
1948 H.V. Morton In Search of S. Afr. 251I could see the road..emerging again upon the face of the greyish-brown plain, which was dotted with small peppercorn bushes like a Hottentot’s hair.
1958 L. Van der Post Lost World of Kalahari 12His (sc. the Bushman’s) hair was black and grew in thick round clusters which my countrymen called, with that aptitude for scornful metaphor they unfailingly exercised on his behalf, ‘pepper-corn hair’.
1961 O. Levinson Ageless Land 25Hottentots were a nomadic people...Light-skinned, of a pale yellow colour, with prominent cheek-bones, flat noses, ‘peppercorn’ tufts of hair, and eyes that seem to slant.
1968 D.J. Opperman Spirit of Vine 251Kok’s face is described in minute detail as looking like ‘old biltong’ with ‘peppercorns of ash-grey hair and with little watery eyes’.
1976 A.R. Willcox Sn Land 119The Bushmen..are typically short and yellow-skinned, with ‘peppercorn’, not woolly, hair on the head.
1978 A.P. Brink Rumours of Rain 225A big, flabby man with an infinitely sad face...Behind him stood his Black helper, an old man with greying peppercorns.
1990 R. Malan My Traitor’s Heart 45She wore spectacles for knitting and sewing, and..her stubby peppercorn hair was flecked with gray.
In the plural, or attributive (especially in the phrase peppercorn hair):hair growing in sparse, tight, curly tufts, as characteristic of the Khoikhoi and San peoples;
Derivatives:
Hence (nonce) peppercorn  transitive verb  figurative, to cover with tufts (of vegetation); so peppercorned  participial adjective, covered with tufts (of peppercorn hair).
1924 S.G. Millin God’s Step-Children 8His life was to be spent among Hottentots in future,..these little yellow fellows,..with their triangular faces (Mongolian in type), and peppercorned heads.
1948 H.V. Morton In Search of S. Afr. 117The bald land peppercorned with its dry, dusty-looking plants ended abruptly, and I saw before me the extraordinary contrast of a green, lush landscape stretching forward to another mountain range.
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18571990
peperkorrel, nounn.perdevoetjie, nounn.
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