bok, noun
/bɔk/
- Origin:
- South African Dutch, Afrikaans, DutchShow more South African Dutch (later Afrikaans), antelope, goat from Dutch bok horned animal.
1. Plural unchanged, boks, or bokke /-kə/.
‖a. An antelope: buck noun1 sense 1 a. Also attributive. See also bokkie sense 2.
1812 A. Plumptre tr. of H. Lichtenstein’s Trav. in Sn Afr. (1928) I. 133They called..the whole family of the antelope boks.
1835 A. Smith Diary (1940) II. 84A large bok of yellowish colour with indistinct white spots seen towards the base of the Cashan hills.
1837 ‘N. Polson’ Subaltern’s Sick Leave 122The sportsman will find zebras and a large bok with long spiral horns.
1837 ‘N. Polson’ Subaltern’s Sick Leave 123These bok are very easily floored with shot and are slow on foot.
1845 W.N. Irwin Echoes of Past (1927) 235He is becoming a splendid shot, and is now stationed in a right good hunting Country where Buffaloes, Boks, etc., are to be met with.
1862 Lady Duff-Gordon Lett. from Cape (1925) 113Old Klein has just sent me a haunch of bok, and the skin and hoofs, which are pretty.
1864 Lady Duff-Gordon in F. Galton Vacation Tourists 190The excellence of the Caffre skin-dressing and sewing is, I fancy, unequalled; the bok-skins are as soft as a kid glove, and have no smell at all.
1877 Lady Barker Yr’s Hsekeeping 6The Museum is well worth a visit..[and] contains numerous specimens of the great ‘bok’ family.
1880 E.F. Sandeman Eight Months in Ox-Waggon 273Guinea fowls..form a very relishing change from the never-varying menu of bôk or mealie pap.
1887 S.W. Silver & Co.’s Handbk to S. Afr. 188The nearest man fired a shot at a bok as he leaped out of a large bush. It was but a snap shot, and missed.
1993 C. Eden in Food & Home Aug. 138A good South African male can produce a braai anywhere on this planet; all he needs is a couple of sticks, a box of Blitz and an unsuspecting bok in a nearby bush.
b. With distinguishing epithets designating different species of antelope: see blauwbok, bleekbok, blesbok, bluebok, bontebok, boschbok, duikerbok, elandbok (eland sense 2), gemsbok, grysbok, klip-bok, pronkbok (pronk sense 1), quagga bok (quagga sense 2), rhebok, rietbok, rooibok, springbok sense 1, steenbok, vlaktebok (vlakte sense 2), waterbok. See also buck noun1 sense 1 b.
2. Plural boks, bokke /-kə/. A goat: buck noun1 sense 2. See also bokkie sense 2.
[1835 T.H. Bowker Journal. 2 JulyRow between the Fingoos & hottentots om bokke one man confined.]
1920 F.C. Cornell Glamour of Prospecting 51Both of them cleared off in the early morning and..brought in a big goat between them...‘Baas,’ he said, ‘..I did not pay for this bok, he was a present!’
1975 Daily Dispatch 13 June 13To take the child now — it’s not a lamb. A bok is a bok, but a person is a person, and you don’t do things like this to a person.
1990 Barrett & Grant in Weekend Post 1 Dec. 1Angora rams..are drawing bids of only R70 at auctions, goats as little as R10...Prior to the auction a farmer said he would be ‘pleased to get R20 a bok’.
3. transferred sense.
a. slang. rare. A sweetheart. See also bokkie sense 1.
1950 H. Gibbs Twilight in S. Afr. 27If a woman becomes the bok of a petty gangster, she is regarded as more fortunate than many.
[1982 D. Bikitsha in Rand Daily Mail 14 Oct. (Eve) 5A woman went by such titles [in Isicamtho]: moll, cherrie, wibbit, ganda, slang, shows, gezu, bok, mathara and others.]
b. colloquial Pronounced /bɒk/. Also ’Bok, and usually with initial capital. Abbreviation of Springbok, see springbok sense 2 a. Also attributive.
- Note:
- With plural -s, often referring to the South African rugby team.
1974 Sunday Times 27 Oct. 1The 1974 Springbok rugby team are flying to France...The Boks are ready for anything — on and off the field.
c. slang. In the phr. to be a bok for, to be bok for, to be game for, or enthusiastic about.
1970 K. Nicol Informant, DurbanDespite the cold he was bok for a swim.
1975 ‘Blossom’ in Darling 29 Jan. 103I’m a bok for having fun and all, but I’ll have to keep this one quiet.
1975 S. Roberts Outside Life’s Feast 60‘Your sister’s a dare-devil isn’t she,’ laughed Mrs Nel. ‘Lennie says she’s a bok for anything.’
1990 Weekend Post 14 July (Leisure) 1The East Cape Game Management Association, always a bok for sport, decided to have a fund-raiser to coincide with its game fair.
d. slang. A hero; a masculine or athletic male.
1973 Y. Burgess Life to Live 16His dashing nickname he had bestowed on himself, she was sure, for he was not, never could have been, any young girl’s idea of a ‘bok’, or charmer.
1975 Darling 12 Apr. 95Seems he rocks over from Vredies to challenge the local pinball boks, and it also seems he already won a pile of bread off them.
1986 Style Oct. 132This inspired Frenchman, who scattered architectural masterpieces all around the Cape, was a rather weary old bok by the time he did The Drostdy at Graaff-Reinet.
1990 Frontline Jan. 23‘You’re too bold,’ said the youth, ‘and our future’s in hock If you try to enfranchise whoever. Maybe coloureds and Indians will say you’re a bok, But we don’t think it’s too bloody clever.’
An antelope: bucknoun1 a. Also attributive.
see blauwbok, bleekbok, blesbok, bluebok, bontebok, boschbok, duikerbok, elandbokeland2, gemsbok, grysbok, klip-bok, pronkbokpronk1, quagga bokquagga2, rhebok, rietbok, rooibok, springbok1, steenbok, vlaktebokvlakte2, waterbok.
A goat: bucknoun2.
A sweetheart.
Abbreviation of Springbok, see springbok2 a. Also attributive.
to be game for, or enthusiastic about.
A hero; a masculine or athletic male.
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