riempie, noun

/ˈrɪmpi//ˈriːmpi/
Forms:
reimpje, reimpjieShow more Also reimpje, reimpjie, reimpy, rheimpy, riempje, rimpje, rim pey, rimpi, rimpie, rimpy, rympie.
Origin:
Dutch, AfrikaansShow more Dutch (and Afrikaans) riem leather thong, strap + -ie.
1.
a. (A thin strip of) worked leather, used especially for thonging the backs and seats of chairs, settles, and other furniture, for shoe-laces, and as string; riem sense 1 b. Also attributive (passing into adjective), and occasionally figurative (see quotation 1852).
1850 N.J. Merriman Cape Jrnls (1957) 110I..cut out a rimpie (small thong of leather), and mended my veldtschoons.
1850 N.J. Merriman Cape Jrnls (1957) 146Very luckily I had carried an awl and piece of bush buckskin for rimpies, as our shoes wanted frequent patching in so long a march.
1850 R.G.G. Cumming Hunter’s Life I. 384A wide-awake hat, secured under my chin by ‘rheimpys’, or strips of dressed skin.
1852 Trial of Andries Botha 63He brought a message to me from John Goliath, that he wanted me for the purpose of cutting me into riempies (strips).
1880 E.F. Sandeman Eight Months in Ox-Waggon 130Rimpey, a sort of skin string.
1895 H. Rider Haggard Nada 44Slowly undoing the rimpis with which it was tied.
1896 R. Wallace Farming Indust. of Cape Col. 439Thongs, called ‘rimpies’, made from the fine soft skins of bucks, are extensively employed by people living on the veld for pointing whip lashes, mending harness, and for the common purpose for which twine is generally employed in more densely populated places.
1913 J.J. Doke Secret City 36Several farm-made chairs to match, thongs of leather — riempjes — crossing each other forming their seat, and fixed together with wooden nails.
1916 Rand Daily Mail 1 Nov.Oak Bookcase,..7 Solid Oak Chairs with Reimpje Seats; 2 Morris Chairs.
1919 M.C. Bruce Golden Vessel 71Riempje furniture is so typical of South Africa and so suitable.
1943 Outspan 20 Aug. 41Oil-free Furniture Riempies in strips 6 feet long by ¼ inch wide, 1/3 per strip.
1969 D. Child Yesterday’s Children 40Beds and chairs were home-made and were no more than rough wooden frames with riempies (strips of hide) stretched across.
1970 Cape Times 11 JuneBoy Scouts tuck a piece of riempie under their chins,..wound round the crown of their ‘wide-awakes’.
1970 Forum Vol.6 No.2, 46Heavy chairs of dark polished wood and with riempies strung across the seat and backrest.
1976 Fair Lady 21 July 119I can never walk past a second-hand shop,..spindle-turned chairs with riempies as limp as overcooked spaghetti.
1982 C. Hope Private Parts 12He put his feet upon the ‘riempie’ table and dozed.
1982 Sunday Times 10 Oct. (Mag. Sect.) 20An ox-wagon bed — a stout wooden frame with a riempie base made of ox-hide thongs.
1987 J. Kench Cottage Furn. 158Riempies, a local speciality, are thongs cut from cowhide and woven to form simple but effective and hard-wearing seating for chairs, stools and benches.
b. riem sense 1 a.
1936 P.M. Clark Autobiog. of Old Drifter 134By the second evening we had a quantity of nice hides pegged out to dry. They were to be cut into reimpjes — hide strips that were a substitute for ropes and useful for many purposes.
1971 H. Zeederberg Veld Express 165The driver and his assistant cut down various saplings, and braced up the wheel with ‘riempies’. These strips of leather were always carried in case of emergencies.
c. rare. By metonomy: a riempie chair.
1949 L.G. Green In Land of Afternoon 194I believe that even the homely, straight-backed riempie, so typical of the Cape farmhouse, may be traced back to the Stuart chair.
1971 Argus 14 May 22I don’t have any aversion to using words like ‘braaivleis’, ‘pondok’, ‘rondavel’ and even ‘riempie’ — when I want to refer to a specific kind of chair — in the English I speak.
2. combinations Usually with combining form (or plural) -s-.
riempiebank, riempiesbank/-baŋk/ [Afrikaans, bank bench, stool], a stool with thonged seat;
riempie bench, riempie chair, riempies chair, [probably partial translations of Afrikaans riempiebank and riempiestoel respectively] simple, traditional Cape furniture with thonged seat (and, sometimes, back);
riempiemat, riempiesmat/-mat/ [Afrikaans, mat bottom, seat (of chair)], the woven seat or back of a piece of thonged furniture;
riempie-seat, a seat of woven riempies;
riempieskoen/-skʊn//-skun/ [Afrikaans, skoen shoe], see quotation 1975;
riempiestoel/-stʊl//-stul/, also riempies-stoel and calque (or partial translation of) riempie stool, plural riempie stools or riempie stoele [Afrikaans stoel chair], a riempie chair (or stool).
1947 H.C. Bosman Mafeking Rd (1969) 102I went and sat next to her on the riempies-bank and took her hand.
1979 E. Prov. Herald 9 Sept. 17The Cape-Dutch home...The grandeur of Victorian crystal from England, the old Malay brasswork, the earthiness of the ‘riempiesbank’.
1985 P. Diamond in Style Dec. 26Objets African/Victorian, a riempiebank with Laura Ashley cushions.
1990 Personality 1 Jan. 42Mynhardt took his Oom Schalk riempies-bank, his stone jug of mampoer, his Oom Schalk beard and moustache and soft felt hat and went on the road.
1920 R. Juta Tavern 133No carpets spoiled the red tiled floors. Riempje benches, carved and seated with thongs of hide, stood against the white walls.
1974 A.P. Brink Looking on Darkness 240When the hour struck, everybody would be present, some on riempie benches or rickety bentwood chairs.
1982 S. Afr. Panorama Mar. 32Stinkwood display cabinets with copper metalwork, and a riempie (thonged) bench.
1983 M. Du Plessis State of Fear 75The tall window opposite my bed, with the low riempie bench underneath it.
1990 Grocott’s Mail 20 Mar. (Suppl.) 6Oom Schalk Lourens in his veldskoene, with his riempie bench and peach brandy.
1915 D. Fairbridge Torch Bearer 27A few comfortable chintz-seated or reimpje chairs.
1926 P. Smith Beadle (1929) 66In this room the Englishman now had his bed, his bath, his guns, two rimpje chairs, a yellow-wood table.
1950 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Jurie Steyn’s Post Office (1971) 95This circumstance of our not feeling quite at ease manifested itself in the way that most of us sat on our riempies-chairs — just a little more stiffly than usual.
1977 J. Packer Dark Curtain 55The divan and two low riempie chairs had been ordered for her by the king. Straw-stuffed cushions with hand-woven covers hid the neat hide thongs of the wooden chairs.
1988 D. Samuelson in Fair Lady 16 Mar. 133She pushed her riempie chair against the wall and felt the warmth of the afternoon sun.
1991 D. Galloway in Weekend Argus 26 Jan. 18Most of the old Cape furniture, from beds and dressers to kists and riempie chairs, was collected from second-hand shops and homes and restored.
a1878 J. Montgomery Reminisc. (1981) 87Our furniture consisted of a wooden katel (bedstead), with a riempie mat, a mattress, a featherbed, pillows.
1973 E. Prov. Herald 24 Jan. 23Pictures, Riempiesmat-chair, small cupboards.
1991 M. Pretorius in Weekend Post 9 Feb. (Leisure) 1He wears dark trousers and a dark waistcoat with a watch chain, one end of which disappears into a pocket. His hands rest on the back of a riempiesmat chair.
1927 Outspan 18 Mar. 49The four parents of the couple sat on riempie-seat chairs in a semi-circle.
1975 D.H. Strutt Clothing Fashions 223Shoes made without nails, the uppers sewn to the soles, were known as riempieskoene.
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 114The trekkers, dressed in traditional dopper coats (short coats buttoned from top to bottom), kappies (bonnets) and hand-made riempieskoene (leather thong shoes), set out in wagons.
1933 W. Macdonald Romance of Golden Rand 72Louw Geldenhuys, sitting on a riempiestoel in the little office.
1953 U. Krige Dream & Desert 75Marta, sitting on her riempiestoel in front of the door leading to the kitchen.
a1953 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Unto Dust (1963) 122A newly-appointed veld-kornet, looking important, seated on a riempies-stoel.
1965 M.G. Atmore Cape Furn. 84The cabriole leg form or ‘riempie stool’.
1970 E. Mundell Informant, Pearston, Eastern CapeAll riempiestoels are rather uncomfortable.
1975 E. Prov. Herald 25 June 24Stinkwood double Riempie Stool.
1985 L. Sampson in Style Feb. 101They sat on riempie stools in the sun peeling potatoes.
3. Parasynthetic derivatives (adjectives):
Derivatives:
riempie-bottomed, riempie-laced, riempie-seated, etc.
1939 [see rusbank sense 1].
1952 G.M. Mills First Ladies of Cape 41Riempie-bottomed chairs.
a1953 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Unto Dust (1963) 38I sat on the riempie-bottomed bench next to Mr Huysmans.
1959 M.W. Spilhaus Under Bright Sky 101She sought her doll, lying..on a rympie-seated chair against the wall.
1968 G. Croudace Silver Grass 34Unfurnished but for a wash-stand and a riempie-laced bed.
1973 Evening Post 14 July 19Six riempie seated ladder back chairs.
1979 J. Gratus Jo’burgers 21Pienaar..leaned back in his large, riempie-seated chair which groaned beneath his weight.
(A thin strip of) worked leather, used especially for thonging the backs and seats of chairs, settles, and other furniture, for shoe-laces, and as string; riem sense 1 b. Also attributive (passing into adjective), and occasionally figurative (see quotation 1852).
By metonomy: a riempie chair.
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