pick-axe, noun

Obsolete. On the diamond fields, a potent ‘cocktail’ of Cape brandy, Pontac wine, and ginger-beer.
1873 F. Boyle To Cape for Diamonds 125He withdraws to the ambulating canteen..and cools his brow and whets his hopes in pontac and gingerbeer, ‘pickaxe,’ or some such compound.
1876 F. Boyle Savage Life 28Before him, on a board smoothed with dirt, stood the filthiest of all glasses, containing a turgid compound of pontak wine, ‘cape smoke’, and home-made ginger-beer, called in our camp parlance a ‘pickaxe.’
1876 F. Boyle Savage Life 170The landlord comes up to me: ‘Seems kinder dull you do!’ says he. ‘Have a pickaxe, and tell a friend about it!’
1887 A.B. Ellis S. Afr. Sketches (Jeffreys)He was forced to take shelter behind the bowl of his pipe, and to reinvigorate himself with a ‘pick-axe’, by which designation a fiery mixture of Cape Smoke, Pontac, and ginger-beer, was known at the Fields.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 370Pick-axe, The slang name of a fiery mixture of Cape smoke, pontac, and ginger-beer, in much request in the Diamond Fields in the early days.
On the diamond fields, a potent ‘cocktail’ of Cape brandy, Pontac wine, and ginger-beer.
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obsolete or obsolescent
piccanin, piccaninny, nounn. & adjectiveadj.pickled fish, noun phrasen. phr.
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