kamassi, noun

/kəˈmasi//kaˈmasi/
Forms:
camassie, gomassieShow more Also camassie, gomassie, kamasi, kamasse, kamassie, kammassie.
Origin:
South African Dutch, KhoikhoiShow more South African Dutch kamassie, kamassiehout, perhaps from Khoikhoi !găn tree or !găn-nāsi bush.
The evergreen tree Gonioma kamassi of the Apocynaceae; its hard yellow wood. Also attributive. Formerly occasionally in full kamassi wood.
1793 C.R. Hopson tr. of C.P. Thunberg’s Trav. II. 110Camassie wood (Camassie-hout), is merely a shrub, and consequently produces small pieces only, which serve for veneering.
1798 S.H. Wilcocke tr. of J.S. Stavorinus’s Voy. to E. Indies II. 80Camassiehout, which is used for veneering.
1816 R.B. Fisher Importance of Cape of G.H. 84The kamasse, a sort of bark, being the rhind or shavings of the tree of that name.
1843 J.C. Chase Cape of G.H. 160Statement of the various woods growing in the Western and Eastern Province of the Cape of Good Hope...Gomassie...[uses] Veneering.
[1860 Harvey & Sonder Flora Capensis I. 459An erect, greyish shrub, called, ‘Kammassie-hout’ by the colonists.]
1905 D.E. Hutchins in Flint & Gilchrist Science in S. Afr. 392Goniami kamassi,..Kamasi is a Boxwood substitute exported from Knysna.
1917 R. Marloth Dict. of Common Names of Plants 45Kamassie’hout, Gonioma Kamassi. Contains a very bitter principle. (Knysna). The wood a substitute for Cape box (Buxus), but the exhalations of the fresh wood injurious to the workers.
1935 L. Chalk et al. Forest Trees & Timbers Brit. Empire III. 15Kamassi attains about 40 ft. in height and generally a maximum girth of 2 to 3 ft.
1935 L. Chalk et al. Forest Trees & Timbers Brit. Empire III. 17Kamassi is one of the two timbers exported from South Africa regularly in small quantities.
1951 Dict. of Gardening (Royal Horticult. Soc.) II. 908Kamassi, Evergreen shrub...Yields the hard Kamassi wood of S. Africa.
1984 A. Wannenburgh Natural Wonder of Sn Afr. 94Beneath the canopy is a lower storey, in which ironwood and kamassi prevail.
The evergreen tree Gonioma kamassi of the Apocynaceae; its hard yellow wood. Also attributive. Formerly occasionally in full kamassi wood.
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Khoi Nama and San Languages
kama, nounn.kamba, nounn.
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