stampblock, noun

Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Calqued on Afrikaans stampblok, see stampblok.
A wooden mortar (usually made of a hollowed-out tree-trunk), in which grain is crushed with a wooden pestle; stampblok.
1864 T. Shone Diary. 19 MayHenry made a stamp block for India corn.
1883 O.E.A. Schreiner Story of Afr. Farm 21The new-comer fixed his eyes pensively on the stamp-block.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 472Stampblock, The wooden mortar in which grain stamping is done.
1923 W.C. Scully Daniel Vananda 107Vardy..sat down on a mealie-stampblock which lay prone close to the mat.
[1949 L. Hunter Afr. Dawn 6Fowls..pecked at the grains of mealies falling from the stamping block.]
1956 F.G. Butler Dove Returns 79Visit us, and you’ll find gold pumpkins stacked Along the outhouse wall, and a stamp-block for mealies Near the kitchen door.
1958 S. Cloete Mask 239Caught between the two like mealies in a stamp block, we will make an end.
1965 A. Gordon-Brown S. Afr. Heritage I. 31In the kitchen..were..a stamp-block for crushing mealies, a mortar for grinding coffee.
1968 K. McMagh Dinner of Herbs 106Father managed to lay hands on a ‘stamp-block’, the genuine egg-cup-shaped hollowed-out tree-trunk mortar with the wooden pestle used by the natives to pound their grain.
A wooden mortar (usually made of a hollowed-out tree-trunk), in which grain is crushed with a wooden pestle; stampblok.
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18641968

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Afrikaans
stamp, verb transitivev.stampblok, nounn.
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