katel, noun

/ˈkɑːt(ə)l/
Forms:
cadel, cardellShow more Also cadel, cardell, cartel, cartell, cartle, catel, kaatle, kadel, kartel.
Origin:
Afrikaans, Malay, TamilShow more Afrikaans, probably adaptation of Malay katil bed. (According to the OED this word was originally South Indian, Tamil kattil bedstead, and was adopted and diffused by the Portuguese as catel, catle, catre trundle bed.)
obs. except in historical contexts
A light bedstead consisting of a wooden frame supporting interwoven leather thongs, particularly as formerly used on an ox-wagon. Also attributive. Cf. katil.
1849 N.J. Merriman Cape Jrnls (1957) 75He..gave me a mattress and quilt stretched upon a ‘catel’ or wagon bed frame.
1852 F.P. Fleming Kaffraria 47The ‘cardell’..a frame of wood with ‘riems;’ or thin thongs, of ox-hide interlaced across it, and in size, is a few inches smaller than the inside of the waggon.
1864 T. Baines Explor. in S.-W. Afr. 22I accepted..an invitation..to avail myself of the cadel, or beds slung in the wagon.
a1878 J. Montgomery Reminisc. (1981) 85My father-in-law,..as was the custom, gave his daughter her katel (bedstead), feather bed, pillows,..etc.
1882 J. Nixon Among Boers 171Two seats ran down the side, and a cartel, or framework of wood and hide, on which our mattress was placed, fitted between them.
1890 A. Martin Home Life 70For night journeys no Pullman car ever offered more luxurious sleeping accommodation than does the kartel, a large strong framework of wood, as wide as a double-bed, suspended inside the tent of the waggon.
1896 H.A. Bryden In Praise of Boers 257Jacoba went to her kartel bed and dreamt of the alert, brisk Engelschmann.
1906 H. Rider Haggard Benita 63One morning Benita, who slept upon the cartel or hide-strung bed in the waggon,..thrust aside the curtain and seated herself upon the voorkisse, or driving box.
1919 M. Greenlees tr. of O.F. Mentzel’s Life at Cape in Mid-18th C. 26He has also to buy himself a bed. This consists of a wooden frame covered by a seal-skin; it is called a ‘catel’.
1926 P.W. Laidler Tavern of Ocean 74The internal arrangements of the hospital were peculiar. Acute cases lay on two rows of cartel beds stretching down the centre of the upper wing.
1928 H. Vedder in Native Tribes of S.W. Afr. 125The furniture consists of the so-called ‘Katel’, a wooden frame with a network of leather straps connecting the four sides, used as a bed.
1934 B.I. Buchanan Pioneer Days 30The kartel, a frame fitted snugly across the wagon, and laced with strips of ox-hide, spread with a mattress, furnished a comfortable bed at night.
1948 H.V. Morton In Search of S. Afr. 83The African trek wagon was really a caravan in which people lived as they travelled...The katel, or bed,..was a wooden frame on which rawhide thongs were interwoven. It was carried under the wagon-tilt by day and brought out at night.
1958 A. Jackson Trader on Veld 44The ‘katels’ (bedsteads) were wooden frames spanned by ‘riempies’ carrying mattresses filled with kapok.
1967 E.M. Slatter My Leaves Are Green 115The wagon was fitted with a ‘kartel’ — a frame laced with oxhide strips which took the place of a bed.
1975 Sunday Times 12 Oct. (Mag. Sect.) 10The old Nama katel or bedstead..carved from tree trunks and strung with skin straps no longer exists, for today people want only the White man’s kind of bed.
1987 G. Viney Col. Houses 62The whole place was crammed with beds — two in the front right-hand room, three and a kadel in the one opposite,..two and two kadels and a crib in the klijnekamer.
1989 B. Godbold Autobiography. 1A full tented wagon, rather like the wagons of the Voortrekkers, but without the riempie-strung kartel, was my first real home.
A light bedstead consisting of a wooden frame supporting interwoven leather thongs, particularly as formerly used on an ox-wagon. Also attributive.
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katdoring, nounn.katil, nounn.
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