rinkhals, noun

Forms:
α. ringel-hals, ringhals;
β. ringeaault, ringkhalsShow more ringeaault, ringkhals, rinkals, rinkhals.
Also with initial capital.
Plurals:
unchanged, or rinkhalses.
Origin:
Afrikaans, South African Dutch, DutchShow more Afrikaans rinkhals, earlier South African Dutch ringhals, rinkhals, from Dutch ring (earlier rinc) ring + hals, neck.
1. The large venomous spitting-cobra Hemachatus haemachatus of the Elapidae, brown or black in colour and distinguished by one or two white rings round the neck; spitting snake; spurting snake; spuugslang. Also attributive. See also Cape cobra (Cape sense 2 a).
α.
1793 C.R. Hopson tr. of C.P. Thunberg’s Trav. I. 208A colonist had been bitten in the foot..by a serpent, of the species called Ringhals (or Ring-neck).
1834 T. Pringle Afr. Sketches 280There are several species of snakes which have come under my own observation, such as..the ringel-hals (ring-throat), with a variety of others which I have not seen.
1847 A Bengali Notes on Cape of G.H. 82The ‘schaap-stikker’ or sheep-stifler; and the ‘Ringel Hals’ or Ring-throat, all venomous.
1860 J. Sanderson in Jrnl of Royal Geog. Soc. XXX. 237One of my drivers also killed a black snake, called the ‘ringhals’ or ‘ringthroat’, from two or three white bars under its throat: it measured about 4 feet in length, and is said to be very venomous.
1864 T. Baines Explor. in S.-W. Afr. 449I think the species is called ‘ringhals’ (or ringed throat) in the colony.
1897 E. Glanville in E.R. Seary S. Afr. Short Stories (1947) 20I killed a snake, a ringhals, yesterday morning back of the kraal, and in the evening when I went by there was a live ringhals coiled round the dead one.
1906 Westminster Gaz. (U.K.) 16 Jan. 4A couple of Ring-hals snakes.
1915 W. Eveleigh S.W. Afr. 82The name ‘ringhals’ means ‘ring-neck,’ and has reference to the whitish band or bands across the throat. Not only has this reptile the power to inflict a deadly bite with its poison fangs — it is able to spit a stream of venom into the eyes of a person standing some feet away.
c1936 S. & E. Afr. Yr Bk & Guide 1107The ringhals or spitting snake is of allied genus, having the expanding hood and concentrated venom of the cobras with the ability to eject the contents of its poison glands in a fine spray for a distance of several feet.
1956 P. Becker Sandy Tracks 121A large ‘ringhals’, the dreaded white-necked cobra of the bushveld, lay basking in the radiance of the dazzling sun.
1989 V. Owen in Grocott’s Mail 20 Jan. 11Snakes were a part of our lives and I imagine we saw one just about every day of our lives — lots of ringhals, few boomslang or Cape cobra and now and then a puffadder.
β.
[1836 A.F. Gardiner Journey to Zoolu Country 330I saw a dark coloured, thick-bodied snake, about five feet long, with a wide flat head..It is, I believe, of the species called by the Dutch the ‘wrinkle snake’.]
[1844 W.N. Irwin Echoes of Past (1927) 229I was nearly bitten by Ring Calse (Dutch) a most venomous snake.]
[1880 E.F. Sandeman Eight Months in Ox-Waggon 74Next morning..we killed the first snake..a long black fellow with a white ring round his neck, the Dutch name for which is Ringculse; but as it has a hood which it inflates when angry, it may probably be a variety of the Cobra di Capella.]
1911 E. Prov. Herald 1 Nov.The Rinkhals, so called because of a white narrow band across its throat.
1926 E. Prov. Herald 24 Feb. 10Spying a plump rinkhals cobra, the Mfesi, hungry after its long journey, attacked with the object of making a hearty meal.
1933 J. Juta Look Out for Ostriches 70Of all the cobra family that inhabit Africa, the rinkhals is unique in that its scales are keeled, and that it produces its young alive.
1945 M. Hone Sarah-Elizabeth 20The snake turned out to be a rinkals, a kind of African cobra, extremely poisonous.
1956 A.G. McRae Hill Called Grazing 47The six-foot-long Rinkhals cobra, reared above its coils, hood flattened and tiny, evil head weaving.
1970 D.M. McMaster Informant, Cathcart, Eastern CapeRinkhals — which ought to be ringhals but is never pronounced that way.
1973 Weekend Argus 24 Feb. (Mag. Sect.) 6Even if you manage to walk around all the puff adders, horned adders, mountain adders,..Perinquey’s adders, blacknecked cobras, rinkhals and busky-bellied water snakes, you still stand a chance of running slap into a barred spitting cobra.
1974 Sunday Times 10 Nov. (Mag. Sect.) 6Cobras, rinkhalses and mambas have a lethal nerve-paralysing (neuro-toxic) poison.
1991 Light Yrs Vol.2 No.3, 8Wear glasses or sunglasses since the rinkhals is a spitting snake, which aims for the eyes with deadly precision, causing intense pain and even blindness.
2. obsolete. In full ringhals kraai /-ˈkrɑːɪ/ [Dutch kraai crow, raven]: the white-necked raven Corvus albicollis of the Corvidae, black with a white band round the neck.
Note:
In this sense found only in the obsolete form ringhals.
α.
1796 E. Helme tr. of F. Le Vaillant’s Trav. II. 34Its..plumage is black, but, having a white patch on the hinder part of the neck, it has thence, in the colonies, received the appellation of ring-hals-kraai (ring-neck crow).
1867 E.L. Layard Birds of S. Afr. 167Corvus Albicollis,..Ringhals Kraai of Colonists, lit. Ring-neck Crow.
1884 Layard & Sharpe Birds of S. Afr. 417This large Raven, which goes by the name in the colony of the ‘Ringhals’ (Ring-neck), is abundant throughout the colony.
1897 H.A. Bryden Nature & Sport 62The common crow in South Africa is not white, but black and white. There are two kinds both very familiar figures — one known to the colonists as the bonte kraai (pied crow) (Corvus scapulatus), and the other called the ringhals kraai (ring-neck crow) (Corvus albicollis), a big, bold fellow, constantly seen about the colonial roads and outspans.
1900 W.L. Sclater Mammals of S. Afr. I. 11The Ring-hals is usually resident in Cape Colony and Natal, and roosts all the year round in or near its nests.
1918 S.H. Skaife Animal Life in S. Afr. 248The common white necked raven, or ringhals, is well known all over the country. It feeds on carrion, small animals, and ticks.
The large venomous spitting-cobra Hemachatus haemachatus of the Elapidae, brown or black in colour and distinguished by one or two white rings round the neck; spitting snake; spurting snake; spuugslang. Also attributive.
In full ringhals kraai /-ˈkrɑːɪ/ [Dutch kraai crow, raven]:the white-necked raven Corvus albicollis of the Corvidae, black with a white band round the neck.
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