tent, noun

Origin:
DutchShow more Calqued on Dutch tent tilt.
1.
a. The tilt or canopy of a wagon, consisting of canvas over a hooped wooden framework; sail sense 1 a. Also attributive.
1820 G. Barker Journal. 22 Nov.Repaired the tent sail of the waggon.
1832 Graham’s Town Jrnl 27 July 118The Undersigned..has at present in his Stores, Tent Sail, Navy blue Prints, Foolscap.
1846 Natal Witness 24 July 2Each wagon to be furnished with a good Tent.
1861 T. Shone Diary. 3 Apr.Henry and his men were making a tent, for his new waggon.
a1867 C.J. Andersson Notes of Trav. (1875) 42A large waggon-camp had been espied;..the white tent covering of the vehicles could be distinctly perceived.
1871 J. Mackenzie Ten Yrs N. of Orange River 62There is but a rotten and rickety waggon, whose tent is broken and its sail torn.
1878 T.J. Lucas Camp Life & Sport 42It (sc. the waggon) is covered with a strong canvas tent or tilt stretched upon a framework of bamboo.
1882 C. Du Val With Show through Sn Afr. I. 105A springless ill-covered bullock-waggon, whose ‘tent’ is so dilapidated that to prevent being wet through in the night we had to open our umbrellas.
1884 ‘E.V.C.’ Promised Land 9‘Very good’, we agreed, and gave a contented glance at the strong canvas-covered tilt, or tent, as it is called in South Africa, that covered the stern end of the wagon.
1890 A. Martin Home Life 70No Pullman car ever offered more luxurious sleeping accommodation than does the kartel, a large, strong framework of wood..suspended inside the tent of the waggon.
1892 The Jrnl 9 July 11 Large Tent Cart and 1 Buggy.
1893 F.C. Selous Trav. & Adventure 24My waggon..on the hinder part of which stood a tilt or tent where I slept.
1907 W.C. Scully By Veldt & Kopje 93The ‘tents’ were of the whitest canvas.
1919 J.Y. Gibson in S. Afr. Jrnl of Science July 6The boogen, or tent bows, arched between standers, or standards, which were fastened on the outer sides of the leer-boomen.
1932 Grocott’s Daily Mail 13 Jan. 116ft. Wagon with half tent, in good order, Wagon Sail, Trek Gear.
1949 H.C. Bosman Mafeking Rd (1969) 146There was so much stuff on the wagon that the tent had to be taken off to get everything on.
1969 F. Goldie River of Gold 81Now and then Sam would climb up on top of the tent sail to get a wider view.
1974 A.A. Telford in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. X. 569Hunters favoured the buck-wagon with a half-tent because ivory and hides needed little protection and the tent provided better sleeping accommodation and shelter for perishable articles.
1986 W. Steenkamp Blake’s Woman 96Mr Penton’s wagon..was hoisted on board..its canvas tilt — or ‘tent’, as Cape people called it — rolled up and put below.
b. With defining word, in the same sense:
wagon-tent; cf. tent sail (see sail sense 2).
1839 W.C. Harris Wild Sports 116Large trees overhung the way, and threatened the destruction of the waggon tents.
1839 T. Shone Diary. 30 Oct.Washed my waggon tent.
1845 Cape of G.H. Almanac & Annual Register (advt)Wm. Thomas Sailmaker...30-inch Canvas for Wagontents and Horse-cribs.
1866 T. Shone Diary. 26 Sept.Henry is making A Waggon tent, the Waggon as gone to the sea side.
1871 J. Mackenzie Ten Yrs N. of Orange River 11We fastened down the sails at both ends of our waggon, adjusted our little table, which was suspended from the side of the waggon-tent, and lighting our candle, spent the evening in reading or in conversation.
1872 T. Baines in S. Afr. Panorama Oct., 1971 29We breakfasted at Witklip, so called from a great quartz rock that looms like a wagon tent in the distance and at noon halted by a reedy pool.
1883 Meteor Nov. 1The masculine portion of the party disdained to take advantage of the shade afforded by the wagon-tent.
1926 P. Smith Beadle (1929) 59The women wore stiffly starched plain white sun-bonnets, like miniature wagon-tents.
1947 H.C. Bosman Mafeking Rd (1969) 29Inside the wagon-tent sat the women and children, listening to the rain pelting against the canvas.
1949 L.G. Green In Land of Afternoon 144He slept on the familiar katel under the wagon tent.
c1978 Report No.34 (Dept of Nature & Environ. Conservation) 98The wooden frame-work of a wagon tent, which will be used on one of the wagon exhibits.
1980 A.J. Blignaut Dead End Rd 98He watched me as I raked the embers over it near a leg of the tripod; then he lay down in the wagon-tent to snore.
2. rare. Elliptical for tent-wagon.
1853 T. Shone Diary. 7 Nov.This day Young Reiken And R’d Wright took a Tent load of forage from Henry’s.
The tilt or canopy of a wagon, consisting of canvas over a hooped wooden framework; sail sense 1 a. Also attributive.
Elliptical for tent-wagon.
Derivatives:
Hence (sense 1 a) tent  transitive verb, to equip (a wagon) with a tilt; tented  adjective, equipped with a tilt.
1852 M.B. Hudson S. Afr. Frontier Life 67The white-tented wagon round which were collecting the flocks of the homeless.
1926 W. Plomer in Voorslag Vol.1 No.2, 45They all climbed up into the tented waggon.
1946 S. Cloete Afr. Portraits 34Others were tented living wagons, the rear half-filled by a big kartel or bed that ran from rail to rail within it.
1955 A. Delius Young Trav. in S. Afr. 66A large tented wagon was kept in one of the University’s halls in memory of the Voortrekkers.
1974 A.A. Telford in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. X. 568This small vehicle,..tented throughout its length, was not only a means of transport but also a home and, on occasion, a fortress.
1989 B. Godbold Autobiography. 1A full tented wagon, rather like the wagons of the Voortrekkers..was my first real home.
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tent, v.
tented
wagon-tent

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ten, nounn.tent-wagon, nounn.
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