gogga, goggo, noun

/ˈxɔxə//ˈxɔxɔ/
Forms:
gho-gho, gogoShow more Also gho-gho, gogo, khoko.
Origin:
Afrikaans, KhoikhoiShow more Afrikaans, from Khoikhoi xo-xon collective term for creeping and slithering creatures.
colloquial
1. An insect, a ‘creepy-crawly’; goggatjie; nunu sense 2. Also attributive.
1905 J. Du Plessis 1000 Miles in Heart of Afr. 54This country ought to be called Gogoland: it simply swarms with insects.
1909 ‘Somgxada’ in E. London Dispatch 8 Jan. 5We have heard South Africa described as a land of goggas, and though in certain portions of the tropics a greater number of insects may be found, our country undoubtedly does contain a very considerable quantity.
1927 W. Plomer I Speak of Afr. 243Mrs White: Another huge black beast! What is it? White: It looks like a gogga.
1934 G.G. Munnik Mem. of Senator 210A brand-new plague has suddenly come upon us in the shape of a tiny little ‘gogga’...Our new friend drops out of the thatch in his hundreds and he is as quick as lightning.
1941 M.R. Drennan Gogga Brown 1Of these borrowed words none suits its purpose better or has a greater wealth of meaning than ‘gogga’...It stands alone to signify the millions of creatures that crawl and creep and sometimes fly, and it even includes that low grade of living thing called vermin.
1955 C. Pagewood Informant, Umkomaas, Kwa-Zulu NatalMr. Ayres was a keen naturalist as well as a hunter and had a wonderful collection of trophies, stuffed birds, butterflies and all kinds of ‘goggas’.
1958 A. Jackson Trader on Veld 65I had to get rid of this collection..because of the constant care it required to keep out moths, worms and other goggas.
1970 J. McIntosh Stonefish 155Nel had chosen the fever tree because the ground there was hard and without grass, and there wouldn’t be trouble from ‘goggas’..ants and furry caterpillars and so on.
1977 F.G. Butler Karoo Morning 144A muddy pool about six foot across, thick with paddaslime and alive with mosquito larvae, tadpoles, red wriggly worms, and other goggas.
1981 Sunday Times 15 Mar. (Extra) 3Inside the shanties I was shocked and frightened out of my wits by the goggas and crawling little lizards.
1990 R. Rowlands Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)The gogga boxes are so useful because the children may use them to look closely at the insect without hurting it.
1992 D. Berry on TV1, 29 Jan. (Good Morning South Africa)What about the goggos and creatures that live in the dunes?
1992 C. De Beer in Getaway Dec. 8 (letter)I was bitten, presumably by a spider, on my arm and because I am allergic to all gogga bites, a swelling the size of a R1-coin developed.
2. figurative and transferred sense. Something menacing, frightening, or unwanted.
a. In politics, especially of policies or election-tactics: a bogy, a monstrous creation. See also spook sense 1.
1934 Friend 14 Feb. (Swart)Has the gogga triumphed again, or has the Prime Minister converted his old racialist colleague to a saner and broader South Africanism.
1943 I. Frack S. Afr. Doctor 155This gentleman returned to South Africa with his brand-new imported political ‘gogga.’
1947 J.S. Franklin This Union (1949) 159Senator van Zyl is raising another electioneering gogga, and this is another nightmare he himself has raised in order to create a certain amount of misgiving in the minds of the public outside.
1970 D. Prosser in E. Prov. Herald 15 Feb.A perfect ‘gogga,’ in the form of the so-called secret document, has been provided by the reconstituted (Hertzog) Nationalists to be used against them by the Vorster Nationalists in the coming General Election.
1975 E. Prov. Herald 5 Sept. 13The ‘goggas’ the Government had created (the separate development legislative assemblies and other bodies) were now beginning to bite them.
1976 Het Suid-Western 1 Sept.In spite of all the rubbish..that has been written..there have been no rondloop goggas and factions on this town council.
1986 Drum Apr. 36PW told the whole world that apartheid was a gogga that had outstayed its welcome, if it ever was welcomed. Unfortunately we see this snarling gogga daily.
b. A dangerous person or thing.
1983 Drum Apr. 11The picture one conjures [up] of the ‘General’ from the evidence led in court is that of a behorned gogga with a tail and fangs.
1985 T. Walters in E. Prov. Herald 19 June 7As..chairman of the English Association of South Africa I have launched a campaign to eliminate five pestilences (taal goggas) from South African English.
1986 S. Sepamla Third Generation 75She had heard the man curse and blabber about communists for so long that it was time she got to know more about these unforgivable goggas.
1991 M-Net TV 5 May (Carte Blanche)If you are going to open up Pandora’s box and goggas are going to jump out, you are going to have to be qualified to deal with those goggas.
1994 D.S. Henderson in Financial Mail 16 Sept. (Rhodes Univ. Suppl.) 5You can only work with the resources at your disposal. Every stone will have a gogga under it, if you insist on looking — but some of the goggas can only receive attention next year.
c. A germ or ‘bug’, a disease.
1963 A. Fugard Blood Knot (1968) 111Zach: I don’t read notices. Morris: They’re warnings. It’s unfit for human consumption being full of goggas that begin with a B. I can never remember.
1978 A. Parnell in Andrean (St. Andrew’s College, Grahamstown) 7 July 118Shortly after his last official appearance as M.O. at last years Feast, as you all probably know, Dr. Wylde was struck down by a particularly vicious gogga, and spent the next four months in a recumbent position in the P.E. provincial hospital.
1987 Pace Mar. 4It is alleged by reputable sources that prostitutes of the world have united for they are about to lose their livelihood because of the dreaded gogga that is causing the medical world sleepless nights.
d. Among anglers: an inedible fish.
1973 Grocott’s Mail 11 May 3A small shark caught by Dave van der Riet won the prize for the heaviest ‘gogga’ (non-edible fish).
An insect, a ‘creepy-crawly’; goggatjie; nunu sense 2. Also attributive.
Something menacing, frightening, or unwanted.
a bogy, a monstrous creation.
A dangerous person or thing.
A germ or ‘bug’, a disease.
an inedible fish.
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19051994

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goffel, nounn.goggatjie, nounn.
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