tree of knowledge, noun phrase

Forms:
Also with initial capitals.
Origin:
EnglishShow more Transferred sense of general English tree of knowledge a figurative or symbolic expression of knowledge in general, comprising all its ‘branches’.
dagga noun2 sense 1.
1946 Cape Times 23 May in E. Partridge Dict. of Underworld 740Tree of knowledge (sc. dagga).
1949 H.C. Bosman Cold Stone Jug (1969) 51They say that the best way to smoke dagga is to draw it through water in a hole made on the ground, in a ‘grond-aar’, like the Bushman smokes it. You kneel down on the ground and pull at a reed. There seems to be something peculiarly fitting in this posture: making low obeisance to the Tree of Knowledge.
1982 D. Bikitsha in Rand Daily Mail 14 Oct. 5Take dagga for example. it has so many names...It has over the years been called: ‘Tree of Knowledge’, [etc.].
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19461982