red blanket, adjectival phrase and & noun phrase
- Origin:
- Alluding to the ochred blankets traditionally worn by the Xhosa people.
A. adjectival phrase
1. red adjective sense 2 b ii and iii.
1937 B.J.F. Laubscher Sex, Custom & Psychopathology 104The wardrobe of a pagan or ‘red-blanket’ native woman is very limited.
1980 M. Lipton in Optima Vol.29 No.2, 148The stress placed by the Xhosa of Transkei and Ciskei on wider kinship ties, rather than on the husband-and-wife relationship, has facilitated adaptation to the frequent absences of the migrants; as has the resistance of the conservative ‘red blanket’ Xhosa to taking their families into the towns.
2. Xhosa adjective sense 2.
1982 A.P. Brink Chain of Voices 145The Boers were pushing from one side; and from across the river Hintsa’s people, the Red Blanket Men, were pushing back.
1991 Best of S. Afr. Short Stories (Reader’s Digest Assoc.) 79The Xhosa have often been referred to as the ‘Red Blanket People’ because of their elegant blankets which used to be dyed with red ochre. Today they are often dyed with modern chemical dyes.
B. noun phrase Rare. [Absolute use of sense A 1.] red noun. See also blanket sense a.
1961 P. Mayer Townsmen or Tribesmen 255I never bothered about the country practice..because I thought the girls would look on me as a ‘Red blanket’.
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