bandom, noun

/ˈbantɔm/
Forms:
banddoom, bandtomShow more Also banddoom, bandtom, bantahm, bantam, bantom.
Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, band band, hoop + om around.
Mining
see quotation 1913.
1891 R. Smith Great Gold Lands 72A curiously marked pebble that is streaked with a succession of parallel rings, from which it has received the descriptive name of ‘banddoom,’ or band round.
1906 Tvl Leader 8 Sept. 17 (Pettman)At a few feet he struck a layer of bantoms. The digger set to work washing these, and in a short while had a 22-carat stone, followed by another of less weight.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 44Bandom,..A curiously marked pebble which is striated with a succession of parallel rings. The specific gravity of this stone is almost identical with that of the diamond, so that where this stone is found the diamond is confidently expected.
1917 Beet & Terpend Romance & Reality of Vaal Diamond Diggings 50The ‘bantom’ is so called from a corruption of a Dutch word meaning ‘band-around’...There exists a ‘banthorn’ on the Brazilian fields, and some consider the term ‘bantom’ to have come from thence, along with the usual corruptions in transit.
1920 F.C. Cornell Glamour of Prospecting 15A wonderful beach where the pebbles..were very much larger..chalcedonies, jaspers, and banded ironstones (the bandtom of the digger).
a1930 G. Baumann in Baumann & Bright Lost Republic (1940) 152The grubby tobacco-bag..contained large ‘bantams’, crystals and other washed stones. [Source Note: A river-stone with barrel-like markings — round and water-washed.]
1950 E. Rosenthal Here Are Diamonds 195Mr. Van Vreeden believes that the oldest word peculiar to South African Diggerdom is ‘bantom’ (not bantam), which goes back almost to the year 1869 when the first finds were made. It has nothing to do with the small fowl, but means ‘band om’ i.e., the pebble has a ‘band’ or ribbon ‘om’ or round it.
1968 J.T. McNish Rd to El Dorado 119Diggers searched eagerly for stones indicative of the presence of diamonds, but chiefly for a sight of ‘bandoms’ as the Boers called them..which Britishers named ‘bantams’ and gutteral Germans ‘bandooms’.
1968 J.T. McNish Rd to El Dorado 128Many claims known to be valueless, even lacking the usual indications of diamonds being there, were salted with promising material such as garnets, bantoms, blinkklippies and cats-eyes.
1971 A.E. Schoch in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. IV. 32Alluvial diamonds often occur together with beautiful, hard, water-worn pebbles...Striped types with a ‘band’ around are called bantams by the diggers.
1980 A.J. Blignaut Dead End Rd 68The bantams, those smooth pebbles with fire in their hearts, promised much and soon. We were working a patch of ground from which the best diamonds on that field were being won.
1991 Sunday Times 21 Apr. 13They..have their own language — which includes words like ‘bantams’ and ‘yellows’.
see quotation 1913.
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Afrikaans
bandit, nounn.bang, adjectiveadj.
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