veldkos, noun

/ˈfeltkɔs/
Forms:
veldcos, veldcostShow more Formerly also veldcos, veldcost, veldkost.
Plurals:
unchanged, or veldkosse/ˈfeltˌkɔsə/.
Origin:
Afrikaans, South African Dutch, DutchShow more Afrikaans, earlier South African Dutch veldkost, from Dutch veld countryside + kost food.
Food gathered from the countryside, particularly bulbs and tubers, but also other plant foods, insects, grubs, and small game. Also attributive.
1831 S. Afr. Almanac & Dir. 235There were families who literally had nothing but ‘Veld Kost’ to live upon until a crop was raised.
1834 T. Pringle Afr. Sketches 82Veld-kost, literally country-food, is the term used for the wild roots and bulbs eaten by the Bushmen, and also by the Colonial Hottentots, on occasions of emergency.
1852 J. Tindall Jrnl (1959) 163They are living on ‘veld kost’..and we have no food to entertain them.
a1867 C.J. Andersson Notes of Trav. (1875) 101We had been without any animal food for some days, and had been chiefly subsisting on ‘veldt cost’, i.e., on such roots as the soil yielded.
1898 W.C. Scully Vendetta 181The vicinity proved to be rich in ‘veldkost,’ which is the name by which the edible bulbs and tubers with which the desert sometimes abounds, are known by.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 531Veld kost, Bulbs and other roots found in the veld, indeed anything that can be picked up in the veld and used as food.
1928 E.H.L. Schwarz Kalahari & its Native Races 147A Bushman..is a relic from prehistoric times, living as primeval man lived, by the chase and on veld cos — roots, wild fruits, such as the tsama melon and naras cucumber, resin from the yellow-wood trees, mushrooms, ant’s eggs (Bushman rice), grubs, caterpillars, and so forth.
1960 L. Marshall in Africa Vol.30 No.4, 338The band is characterized by the organization of rights to veldkos areas and water-holes.
1975 Afr. Wildlife Vol.29 No.4The ‘mermaids’ of the seafarers of old..also need urgent protection...And our marsh roses and cycads, our stone-plants and ‘veldkosse’.
1986 Y. Van Wijk Practical Bk of Herbs 17Their initial poverty, and the hardships and drought they endured, hastened the settlers’ recourse to ‘veldkos’ that included bush tea, wild grapes.., wild celery.., pies of ‘elephant’s food’.., and that old standby, sorrel.
1987 W. Steenkamp Blockhouse 23We had taken to eating veldkos, roots and tubers that we knew would not poison us.
Food gathered from the countryside, particularly bulbs and tubers, but also other plant foods, insects, grubs, and small game. Also attributive.
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Afrikaans
Dutch
veldkornetcy, nounn.veld pond, noun phrasen. phr.
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