turf, noun

Origin:
DutchShow more Calque formed on Dutch turf peat.
In full turf soil: a greasy black noritic soil which is heavy, clayey, and fertile. Also attributive, and combination ‖ turfgrond/-xrɔnt/ [Afrikaans, grond soil, ground], or with defining word, black turf, in the same sense.
1929 Handbk for Farmers (Dept of Agric.) 297There are all types of soils ranging from gravels to very heavy clays. Some of these contain as much as 50 per cent. of clay, as for example the Black Turfs.
1929 Handbk for Farmers (Dept of Agric.) 301Black and red turfs [are] characteristic.
1932 Farming in S. Afr. May 50 (Swart)Only certain wheat soils in the Transvaal, particularly these belonging to the group commonly known as ‘black turf’ require potash for optimum yields.
1937 Handbk for Farmers (Dept of Agric. & Forestry) 733Soils having a high silt content, such as heavy clay loams and black noritic turf soils.
1937 Handbk for Farmers (Dept of Agric. & Forestry) 737Wheat is cultivated on black clayey soil (turf), heavy red loam and also on sandy soils.
1947 C.R. Prance Antic Mem. 88Addis must saddle-up and ride ‘forthwith’ in the dark through wilderness, a matter of fifty miles of blind bush including several miles of gluey ‘turf’ to Wachtenbeetje Drift.
1947 C.R. Prance Antic Mem. 100All patrols had now to be done by native Constables on foot or bicycle, so far as a push-bike can be carried or conjured in summer through black ‘turf’ soil.
1950 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Jurie Steyn’s Post Office (1971) 44He had seen Johnny Coen..busy scraping some of the worst turf soil off his veldskoens...taking all the trouble..to get the turf soil off his face. ‘If he was coming here to see us, well, he wouldn’t care how much black turf there was on his face.’
1950 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Unto Dust (1963) 178It was muddy in the turf lands, and there was no fire-wood there, but we all said that we did not mind...The mud of the turf lands was good enough for us, we said.
1950 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Unto Dust (1963) 179We saw..that what she had in the pot was black earth. It was wet and almost like turf soil.
a1951 H.C. Bosman in L. Abrahams Unto Dust (1963) 138It was said that he was now even trying to find diamonds in the turfgrond on his farm.
1977 L. Abrahams Celibacy of Felix Greenspan 64He had to sit on the broken black turf of a ploughed furrow, that was like sharp stones.
1985 S. Afr. Panorama May 42The soil at Medunsa is acidic turf, and desert plants have not yet adapted to it.
In full turf soil:a greasy black noritic soil which is heavy, clayey, and fertile. Also attributive, and combination ‖ turfgrond/-xrɔnt/ [Afrikaans, grond soil, ground], or with defining word, black turf, in the same sense.
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19291985
tung-ziekte, nounn.turkey buzzard, noun phrasen. phr.
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