kameel, noun

Origin:
South African DutchShow more South African Dutch, shortened form of kameelperd, kameelpaard giraffe (literally ‘camel horse’).
obs.
cameleopard.
1839 W.C. Harris Wild Sports 158The Hottentots..were leisurely returning, having come to the conclusion that ‘Sir could not catch the kameel’.
1839 W.C. Harris Wild Sports 373Camelopardalis Giraffa. The Giraffe. Kameel of the Cape Colonists.
1896 H.A. Bryden Tales of S. Afr. 70Rather suddenly we came upon a klompje of giraffe, and as..we wanted meat, I rammed the spurs in and galloped headlong for the kameels.
1900 W.L. Sclater Mammals of S. Afr. I. 264The name giraffe, derived according to Skeet from the arabic Zaref or Zarefat, is practically unkown in South Africa where the term ‘kameel’ is always used.
1925 in F.C. Slater Centenary Bk of S. Afr. Verse 11Through the forest ways where the wild things graze...Where the tall ‘Kameel’ at sunset steal like ghosts to silent ‘vley’.
1925 F.C. Slater Shining River 234Kameel, The Southern giraffe, formerly found throughout the country north of the Orange River. (There are no true camels in this region).
1936 E. Rosenthal Old-Time Survivals 36Many a South African..still calls a leopard a ‘tiger’; while to some farmers a giraffe is still a ‘kameel’ or camel, as it was when zoology books were inaccurate, back in the sixteen-hundreds.
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obsolete or obsolescent
kambro, nounn.kameeldoring, nounn.
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