tavern, noun

Origin:
EnglishShow more Special senses of general English tavern inn.
1. Tavern of the Seas, or occasionally Tavern of the East: Cape Town, so called because of its traditional role as a refreshment-station for sailors on their voyages to and from the East; occasionally, District Six, one of the municipal districts of Cape Town.
1920 K.M. Jeffreys tr. of Memorandum of Commissary J.A. de Mist 168The Cape was nothing more than ‘The Tavern of the East,’ on the ‘Highway of the Sea’.
1920 K.M. Jeffreys tr. of Memorandum of Commissary J.A. de Mist 196All of them are equally interested in retaining the right to refresh themselves at this tavern of the high seas.
1920 R. Juta Tavern 28Those rich merchants of the Tavern of the Seas, the Receivers of the host of the East, the Harbour of the Flotsam and Jetsam of the two great Oceans.
1947 L.G. Green Tavern of Seas 21She was white and dignified with her awnings spread under the South African sun and her anchor down in the mud of the ‘Tavern of the Seas’.
1955 A. Delius Young Trav. in S. Afr. 86Cape Town is supposed to be more interested in good cooking than anywhere else in the Union...It was known as the Tavern of the Seas once. Sailors used to drop in here for a change from the salt-pork and maggots.
1959 F.G. Butler in Bk of S. Afr. Verse (1963) 141English, Dutch and Portuguese Sick of biscuits and sodden cheese Put in at the Tavern of the Seas. [Source Note: The Tavern of the Seas: nickname for Cape Town.]
1964 L.G. Green Old Men Say 15A coffee house for the business men who sold meat and vegetables to the ship that called at the ‘Tavern of the Seas.’
1971 Personality 5 Mar. 21The Cape of Good Hope was known internationally in the early days as the Tavern of the Seas...Jan van Riebeeck’s station had always been intended as a refreshment station and what better refreshment could a sailor find than liquor?
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 60The tavern of the seas...The basis of Cape Town’s economy was its situation between two ‘trade routes’: that is, agricultural produce was brought from the rural interior and sold to ships in port.
1990 Staffrider Vol.9 No.1, 44District Six, the slum known to white Capetonians somewhat romantically as the Tavern of the Seven Seas.
1990 Light Yrs Feb. 1Cape Town is becoming once again the Tavern of the Seas.
1992 Natal Witness 4 Jan. 2Cape Town, known to many seafarers as the tavern of the seas, will host the third stopover of a new round-the-world yacht race in March next year.
2. A legal, licensed shebeen (sense 1). Also attributive.
1981 Frontline May 12The shebeeners organisation, which had its genesis a few years before, changed its name to the Soweto Tavern Association...(Its members opted for ‘tavern’ instead of ‘shebeen’ to show their willingness to move away from illegality and,..to add ‘some tone’).
1985 Probe July 13If you had a licence you ran a tavern and if not you belonged to the old days of prohibition and remained a shebeen. But tavern licences have to be given back..for renewal.
1987 S. Molrath in City Press 15 Feb. 3‘Mississippi’ and ‘Madraai’, longtime ‘illegal’ shebeen kings, were recently given ‘conditional authority’ by the Liquor Board to open taverns and sell liquor on their premises.
1990 [see café de move-on].
Tavern of the Seas, or occasionally Tavern of the East:Cape Town, so called because of its traditional role as a refreshment-station for sailors on their voyages to and from the East; occasionally, District Six, one of the municipal districts of Cape Town.
A legal, licensed shebeen (sense 1). Also attributive.
Derivatives:
Hence (sense 2) taverner  noun, the proprietor of a tavern; also called shebeener.
1984 City Press 17 JuneThe National Taverners’ Association has..said they will close shebeens on this historic day (sc. June 16).
1987 P. Devereux in Style Mar. 24Super-consultant Colin Hall..addressed the National Taverners Association (shebeeners) in 1982 with the opening: ‘Mr President, Mr Chairman, Mr Master of Ceremonies, distinguished guests, hoodlums, crooks and fellow spivs’.
1989 S. Kumalo in City Press 19 Feb. 9A local taverner told City Press..‘since these conservatives took over the town, we have decided to hit back in the only legal way we can’.
1990 Weekly Mail 28 Sept. 9The loudest complaints were from taverners concerned about the fortune their shebeens will lose when customers have to be home by 9pm.
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tausa, verb intransitivev.taxi, nounn.
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