‖diretlo, noun

/diˈretlɔ/
Forms:
diretlô, liretlaShow more Also diretlô, liretla, liretlo.
Origin:
Southern SothoShow more Southern Sotho diretlo, liretlo (both spelling-forms being pronounced /di-/, the initial di- and li- reflecting the orthographic systems of South Africa and Lesotho respectively), from retla to cut up small pieces of meat.
Among Sotho-speakers: a. ritual killing, see ritual; b. pieces of human flesh used for medicinal purposes or in witchcraft. Also attributive.
1952 B. Davidson Report on Sn Afr. 220The outbreak in 1947 and 1948 of a wave of diretlo or ‘medicine murders’ in Basutoland. Such murders have been neither peculiar to Basutoland nor recent in origin.
1953 P. Lanham Blanket Boy’s Moon 130Libe knew little of liretlo, he was not of the pitso...The police of Lesotho would discover that it was an impi from Lomontsa that had committed the Ritual Murder.
1957 A.A. Murray Blanket 123A man who killed his own brother. A liretla murder, too. That is an ugly thing, now.
1968 A. Fulton Dark Side of Mercy 28The Moruti, the priest who had baptised him..denounced all killing as evil, and Liretlo, the ritual killing, as the greatest evil of all.
1968 A. Fulton Dark Side of Mercy 224The clever lawyer..had surely made plain to the court that Liretlo was not murder as was any other killing where men took life for some petty personal motive such as gain, greed, revenge or lust for power. That which had been done had been done for the good of all Lesotho...The crops were good and the land fertile.
1970 J.P. van S. Bruwer in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. II. 119The most widely known use of parts of the human body has been in ‘medicine murders’ in Lesotho...These parts, known..as diretlô, are used to prepare a salve.
1972 B. Bennett in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. VII. 652From a victim’s body are cut strips of flesh or particular organs falling under the general term ‘diretlo’ and used to make magic compounds or ‘protective medicines’.
c1976 H. Flather Thaba Rau 51‘There..is diretlo — that’s what we are going to discuss.’...‘Body-snatching, that’s what he’s talking about...They slice choice bits off your anatomy and use them for medicine.’
1980 Lye & Murray Transformations 67Diretlo, or ritual murder, persisted in Lesotho.
ritual killing, see ritual;
pieces of human flesh used for medicinal purposes or in witchcraft. Also attributive.
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dinges, dingus, nounn.disa, nounn.
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