spider, noun

Origin:
See quotation 1974.
A light carriage with a high body and four disproportionately large and slender wheels; occasionally, a dog-cart. Also attributive.
1873 F. Boyle To Cape for Diamonds 238Concluded an arrangement with Mr Martin for the use of his spider cart and two horses, in exchange for my rifle and smooth-bore gun...Mr Martin..sent me up the spider fully equipped at 5.30 a.m.
1879 Daily News 21 Aug. 5I don’t know how often that ‘spider’ and I rolled over together into the mud.
1881 E. London Dispatch & Frontier Advertiser 15 Jan. 2On Monday a pair of horses..bolted with a spider from the Episcopal Church at Kei Road and made a complete smash of the vehicle.
1883 O.E.A. Schreiner Story of Afr. Farm 257At the farmhouses where he stopped the ‘ooms’ and ‘tantes’ remembered clearly the spider with its four grey horses.
1897 J.P. Fitzpatrick Outspan 103The leaders shied violently to the off, the spider swung down the slope, slid a little, poised for a moment on two wheels, and turned slowly over on its side.
1900 Grocott’s Penny Mail 6 July 1Double-seated Spider, almost new.
1915 D. Fairbridge Torch Bearer 216‘What about an ambulance, Mr le Sueur?’ ‘We could only get a spider — there are no closed carriages in Vredendorp.’
1934 B.I. Buchanan Pioneer Days 71Considerably later began the importation of American single and double seated buggies, here rechristened ‘spiders’.
1949 O. Walker Proud Zulu (1951) 225A featherweight but strong American spider which could get him down to the Bay in two days easily.
1969 A.A. Telford Jhb.: Some Sketches 44Another favourite, often seen among the wagons, carts and buggies, was the ‘Spider’ with its light body slung on four large slender wheels.
1971 H. Zeederberg Veld Express 101The ‘spider’ was certainly a luxurious vehicle. The four wheels were higher than the conventional type to enable it to negotiate the rivers and drifts more comfortably.
1974 A.A. Telford in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. 571The more popular type of four-wheeled vehicle, both with the farmer and the townsman, was the American buggy, one of several vehicles commonly called a ‘spider’ in South Africa. Very slender large wheels supporting a small light body suggested a spider in appearance...Two to six passengers could be carried. The four-wheeled dogcart with passengers sitting back to back was also called a spider.
1982 S. Afr. Panorama Nov. 33Socialites drove in their ‘spiders’ to attend London theatrical productions in the Masonic Hall.
1991 B. MacKenzie (tr. of F.P. Van den Heever) in Best of S. Afr. Short Stories 59I pulled the old spider carriage out of the clump of reeds where our Oubaas had hidden it from the tommies.
A light carriage with a high body and four disproportionately large and slender wheels; occasionally, a dog-cart. Also attributive.
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sperrgebiet, nounn.spiering, nounn.
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