A. noun
1. A rascal, rogue, scoundrel; sometimes used affectionately; occasionally figurative, a danger, an evil.
1802 in G.M. Theal Rec. of Cape Col. (1899
) IV. 328
They were obliged..to give 12 firelocks to the Hottentot Claas Stuurman; which certainly instead of terrifying the Schelmen, served on the contrary very much to encourage them.
1827 T. Philipps Scenes & Occurrences 39
Told the Caffer that..he was a schelm. The Caffer flew into a violent passion, and said he was no schelm.
1836 C.L. Stretch Journal. 4 JulyHe..began rowing the company calling them alternately his children, Kinders, and Skellums.
1838 J.M. Bowker Speeches & Sel. (1864
) 73
He asked me if I thought Umkye clever. I said no; but that I thought him easily led away by schellums.
1860 A.W. Drayson Sporting Scenes 314
It is my belief that a thorough Cape ‘schelm’ would..beat the best English swindler living.
1876 F. Boyle Savage Life 274
I see dis here Riet, the skellum, rise twenty feet in half-hour, no? And in half-day I see him flood the veldt up to yonder hills!
1882 J. Nixon Among Boers 28
Generally speaking the Boers will not allow the natives even to be boys. They are ‘schelms’ i.e. rascals — the term applies to awkward oxen.
1900 B. Mitford Aletta 52
At this man Colvin’s neighbours looked askew. He had ‘schelm’ writ large all over his yellow personality, they declared.
1911 Blackburn & Caddell Secret Service 309
A committee of three, which included young ‘schelm’ David van der Merwe,..went to Germany to examine and study rifles and big guns.
1914 [see sense 2 below].
1916 J. Buchan Greenmantle 168
I got into German Territory all right, and then a skellum of an officer came along, and commandeered all my mules.
a1931 S. Black in S. Gray Three Plays (1984
) 167
You don’t know Goldenstein, hey? Ooh, today he’s very rich but such a skelm!
1953 U. Krige Dream & Desert 43
You’ve a good mother, Jannie, and you’re such a skelm! How’s it possible?
1958 I. Vaughan Diary 3
He said Missie, I know you, you are the small skelm. You will run away..and I will not find you soon.
1961 T. Macdonald Tvl Story 93
‘Don’t you lock the door?’ I asked. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No skellem has a hope on earth to get in while the dogs are about.’
1975 S.S. Mekgoe Lindiwe (1978
) 17
Sergeant: Where have all the skelms gone to? It has been very quiet for two whole weeks. 1st Constable: Yes Sarge, maybe tsotsis are repenting.
1978 M.J. Mtsaka Not his Pride 18
I never knew that all along I’ve been rearing and feeding a big skelm in my house who would one day rise up against me.
1986 S. Sepamla Third Generation 74
All communists are skelms, crooks I tell you.
1986 Thousand Ways to Die (N.U.M.
) Sept. 24
Workers say that white miners do not do proper searches and inspections. They do not think about all the dangers...‘If there is too much reef in the stope, the white miner forces us to work on — even if there are skelms in the reef.’
1990 J. Naidoo Coolie Location 212
De Beer asked me one day if I was signing the passes of ‘boys’ who no longer worked for the Depot...‘In future don’t sign their passes. They’re real skelems.’
1991 P. Slabolepszy Braait Laaities. 16
There are sharks out there jong. White men can also be skelms. White men are sometimes the biggest skelms around.
2. A rogue animal; a bad-tempered, recalcitrant, or vicious creature.
1827 G. Thompson Trav. 385
Both the lion and saddle had disappeared, and nothing could be found but the horse’s clean picked bones. Lucas said he could excuse the schelm for killing the horse..but the felonious abstraction of the saddle..raised his spleen mightily.
1850 N.J. Merriman Cape Jrnls (1957
) 146
Our horse from Burghersdorp..was a real skelm (as the Dutch call a rascally man, or unmanageable horse).
1882 [see sense 1 above].
1887 H. Rider Haggard Jess 6
I am glad that you have killed the skellum (vicious beast).
1907 J.P. Fitzpatrick Jock of Bushveld 260
The natives told us it was quite useless to follow it up as it was a real schelm, and by that time would be miles away in some inaccessible krans.
1914 S.P. Hyatt Old Transport Rd 213
A schelm is any noxious creature. As a rule the word is used for wild animals, from lions down to owls, but really it is equally applicable to Colonial politicians and their kind.
1937 [see
trek verb sense 1 a].
1939 S. Cloete Watch for Dawn 67
‘I am not dead,’ Kaspar said, having quieted his horse, ‘and I do not think anything is broken..but your horse is a skelm.’
1960 J. Cope in D. Wright S. Afr. Stories 55
‘Hey, skelm!’ He reeled in one of the lines and a long slender fish..was swung on to the deck, snapping vicious jaws.
1968 S. Cloete Chetoko (1976
) 188
‘I’ll teach you,’ he said. ‘Ya, you damn lazy skelm.’ He raised his whip and brought it down on Old Lucy’s quarters.
3. As an abstract noun:
see quotations.
1990 R. Stengel January Sun 50
There is some intangible, undefinable quality that they all seem to have. Skelm — it’s a kind of dull-witted shrewdness.
1993 N. Jardine Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)‘He’s looking for some skelm tonight’ i.e. a sexual encounter.
B. adjective
1. Rascally, sly, villainous, wicked, evil.
1802 R. Curtis in G.M. Theal Rec. of Cape Col. (1899
) IV. 442
It being deemed impracticable to send a messenger to Algoa Bay by land, owing to the present hostile disposition of the Skellam Hottentots,..I sent the Euphrosyne with the Dispatch.
1806 Gleanings in Afr. (anon.) 253A military post has been established in this distant part of the country, as a check upon the boors, and a security against the incursions of the neighbouring Caffres, and Schelm Hottentots.
1829 C. Rose Four Yrs in Sn Afr. 115
I joined a party of Schelm (robber) Hottentots and Kaffers, and we had horses, and arms, and we would attack the boors’ houses.
[1855 G.H. Mason Life with Zulus 201
The two Zulus..had..become tolerably familiar with the coast Caffres (Fingoes), whom they described as Bonya-skellom Fingoe (rascally Fingoes).]
1920 F.C. Cornell Glamour of Prospecting 88
The police would put him in tronk if he went there; no one was there but schelm Bushmen, cattle thieves.
1933 W.H.S. Bell Bygone Days 237
If Baas only knew what a schelm place it is Baas would never have come here.
1963 M. Kavanagh We Merry Peasants 145
Those who would rather work down a mine..than dig skelm grass roots under an open sky.
1964 J. Bennett Mr Fisherman (1967
) 8
‘He’s very skelm, that fish,’ he said. ‘I’ll say,’ said the young man, with feeling.
1973 J. Cope in S. Gray Writers’ Territory 115
‘My, but you good. The hotnots is skelm but you more skelm, mister’ he said. ‘Oh yes, I’m very skelm.’
1979 Capetonian May 9Some skelm politician whose double vowels jump up and down..when he lays down that syrupy Oxford Afrikaans that they manufacture in Pretoria.
1987 L. Nkosi Mating Birds 80
Mrs. Van Rooyen was found in the bathroom..hanging by the belt of her dressing gown...Van Rooyen burst into laughter. ‘That skellum whore has gone and done it at last!’
1988 M. Tlali in Staffrider Vol.7 No.3
, 356
When you don’t have cash I give you eggs and I know you come back and pay me. Everybody is so ‘skelm’.
1989 Weekly Mail 13 Oct. 15
Spotted at a Jo’burg shopping hotbed, a skelm garment which pictured a palmy island and said: Robben Island — Time Sharing.
2. Of an animal:
bad-tempered, recalcitrant, vicious.
1827 T. Philipps Scenes & Occurrences 151
Diederik..determined on shooting it, declaring that no schelm beast should kill his horse.
1828 T. Pringle Ephemerides 114
’Tis his lair — ’tis his voice! — from your saddles alight, For the bold schelm-beast is preparing for fight.
1852 M.B. Hudson S. Afr. Frontier Life 16
It was with our horses no easy affair, For we had in our drove a most skellum young mare That had never been broken or handled before.
1886 G.A. Farini Through Kalahari Desert 163
He is a skellum lion, and the sieur must not go. The lion is bad-tempered, and will fight.
1911 L. Cohen Reminisc. of Kimberley 397
‘Hi, skilum Pontac!’ (crack) ‘Ah! you verdompt England!’ (crack, whack, bang) and poor England would plunge into the yoke mad with pain and terror. The most useless ox in a Dutchman’s team is always named England — and suffers accordingly.
A rascal, rogue, scoundrel; sometimes used affectionately; occasionally figurative, a danger, an evil.
A rogue animal; a bad-tempered, recalcitrant, or vicious creature.
see quotations.
Rascally, sly, villainous, wicked, evil.
bad-tempered, recalcitrant, vicious.
Chrome
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Safari