balie, noun

Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, large tub, cask.
historical
a. A tub, butt, or vat. Also attributive.
Note:
Balies were used in Cape Dutch kitchens and in wine-making.
1955 L.G. Green Karoo 105On lonely farms the grapes are still pressed in the balies (large vats) with bare feet. Some days later the liquid mos is passed into the old brandewynketel or still, made to very much to same pattern as those used by Tennessee ‘moonshiners’.
1971 Baraitser & Obholzer Cape Country Furn. 263A selection of large and small teak vats (balies) with and without lids were used in the household.
1973 M.A. Cook Cape Kitchen 79The consideration of water storage leads on naturally to the subject of tubs or balies of all sorts. Their uses and names are legion. In the 18th Century they were made of teak, usually bound with brass hoops.
1974 S. Afr. Garden & Home June 31Vats or balies in common use in the Cape kitchen...The largest member of the family of balies was the water butt.
1981 S. Afr. Panorama July 47The inlaid pearwood kist, on which rests a wooden Voortrekker balie (water carrier), was [her] first Africana furniture purchase.
1984 B. Johnson-Barker in Wynboer June 72He even bathed that night, using the enamel bucket and the balie that his wife made the pekel in, so he came out a bit salty and with the invigorating tang of vinegar.
b. With distinguishing epithet denoting a particular type of balie:
botterbalie/ˈbɔtə(r)-/ [Dutch, botter butter], a butter-vat;
melk balie/ˈmɛlk-/ [Dutch, melk milk], milking balie, a milking-vat;
pekelbalie, see pekel sense 2;
teegoedbalie/ˈtiəxut-/ [Dutch, teegoed ‘tea things’], a washing-up basin;
trapbalie/ˈtrap-/ [Afrikaans, trap tread, crush underfoot], a wine-pressing vat;
vleisbalie/ˈfleɪs-/ [Dutch, vleis meat], a vat for pickling meat;
voetebalie/ˈfutə-/ [Dutch, voete feet], a foot bath;
waterbalie/ˈvɑːtə(r)-//ˈwɔːtə/ [Dutch, water or English water], a water butt.
1973 M.A. Cook Cape Kitchen 79Next in size were the little botterbalies, which were provided with lids kept in place by two short lugs.
1971 Baraitser & Obholzer Cape Country Furn. 257Milking was done into a melkbalie, a small tub bound by two iron hoops and generally made of teak.
1973 M.A. Cook Cape Kitchen 79The smallest of all were the milking balies.
1971 Baraitser & Obholzer Cape Country Furn. 263The shallowest of all vats is the Teegoedbalie. It is a small two-handled vat used both as a tray and as a basin for washing cups and saucers in.
1975 S. Afr. Panorama Jan.Items such as a..‘pekelbalie’ (tub for pickling meat) and on the boekenhout table in the middle stood a ‘teegoedbalie’ used for washing dishes.
1971 L.G. Green Taste of S.-Easter 204The trapbalies were cleaned and the wagons came up to the cellar door loaded with baskets of grapes.
1981 P. Dane Great Houses of Constantia 100A wine-press with all its accoutrements, a ‘trap balie’ for treading grapes, vats filled with wine,..ten empty leggers, [etc.].
1971 Baraitser & Obholzer Cape Country Furn. 263One of the most important was the meat pickling vat (Vleisbalie or Pekelbalie). This was a large, round or oval balie with brass or iron hoops...Not to be forgotten is the vat in which the head of the house took comfort soaking his feet, the Voetebalie.
1973 M.A. Cook Cape Kitchen 79Voetebalies..usually were slightly larger and had two lugs to allow them to be carried round. Although the old Cape houses lacked bathrooms most families..were most particular about going to bed with clean feet.
1971 L.G. Green Taste of S.-Easter 54Perhaps the most typical Sandveld items are the wooden kitchen tubs, casks, waterbalies and butter churns.
1974 S. Afr. Garden & Home June 30The contents of the kitchen right from iron utensils to copper and brass, wooden kitchenware, furniture, water balies (vats) [etc.].
A tub, butt, or vat. Also attributive.
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19551984