dabby, noun

/ˈdabi//ˈdæbi/
Forms:
α. dabbe, dabbieShow more dabbe, dabbie, dabby, dubbee;
β. davib, dawebShow more davib, daweb, dawee, daweep, dawib, dawip.
Origin:
Afrikaans, Nama, KhoiShow more From Afrikaans dabbie, adaptation of Nama dawe-b, or Khoi daba-hei-s tamarisk; or see quotation 1989.
In full dabby boom/-bʊəm/ [Afrikaans boom tree], dabby tree, dabby bush: the wild tamarisk Tamarix usneoides of the Tamaricaceae. Also attributive.
α.
1838 J.E. Alexander Exped. into Int. I. 92Mimosa and dubbee, or tamarisk trees..lined its banks.
1838 J.E. Alexander Exped. into Int. II. 62The dubbee boom, or tamarisk tree, apparently the type of this part of Africa, and which I had constantly seen from the Kousie to the Kuisip, was now covered with white bloom.
1844 J. Backhouse Narr. of Visit 549In many places, Tamarix orientalis, was mixed with the Dabby-tree; both are confounded under the name of Abiquas-geelhout, which belongs however to the latter.
1859 ‘A.B.C.’ in Cape Monthly Mag. VI. Oct. 223The north bank of the Swakop River..is fringed by noble trees.., and that termed Dabbe in southern parts of the colony.
1870 R. Ridgill in A.M.L. Robinson Sel. Articles from Cape Monthly Mag. (1978) 37A few stunted dabby bushes in the dry bed of the ’Hooms.
1889 F. Galton Trav. in S. Afr. 11Bushes (Dabby bushes I have always heard them called) not unlike fennel, but from eight to twelve feet high, grew plentifully.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 135Dabby bushes,..Tamarix articulata.
1914 C. Pettman Notes on S. Afr. Place Names 32The Dabby tree (Tamarisk) has given its name to one or two places in Namaqualand: eg. Daweros and Daweras (Daweb, tamarisk).
1966 C.A. Smith Common Names 196Dabbie (dabees), Tamarix usneoides...The vernacular name is a corruption from the Nama Hottentot name for the plants.
[1983 P.S. Rabie tr. of Nienaber & Raper’s Hottentot Place Names 92Dabbe(draai),..named after the Tamarix usneoides or ‘tamarisk tree’...Dabbe, dabbie, dabby, dabe, dabi, dawe, dawi are various spellings of the name as it appears in many..place names.]
β.
[1837 Ecklon & Zeyher Enumeratio Plantarum Africae 330Tamarix orientalis,...Ab Hottentottis ‘Daweep’.]
1917 R. Marloth Dict. of Common Names of Plants 22Davib or Dawee, Tamarix articulata. A small tree on the banks of rivers in the drier districts.
1935 A.W. Van der Horst tr. of Jrnl of Hendrik Jacob Wikar 53When the children are six or eight years old, sharp sticks are cut for them and shaped after the fashion of an assegaai, from ‘dawee’ or ‘saprey’ wood.
1966 C.A. Smith Common Names 197Dawee (daweb) (daweep), Tamarix usneoides...The vernacular name in all the variations of the original Hottentot name ‘dabee’.
1966 C.A. Smith Common Names 198Dawib (dawip),..See dawee.
1977 E. Palmer Field Guide to Trees of Sn Afr. 222Tamarix usneoides...Sometimes known as dawee, a corruption of the original Hottentot name.
1983 [see above].
In full dabby boom/-bʊəm/ [Afrikaans boom tree], dabby tree, dabby bush:the wild tamarisk Tamarix usneoides of the Tamaricaceae. Also attributive.
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dabbies, verb transitivev.Dad’s Army, noun phrasen. phr.
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