Kei, noun

/kaɪ/
Origin:
KhoikhoiShow more Khoikhoi kei sand (used as the name of the river forming the border between the old Cape Province and Transkei).
1. combinations
Kei apple, also with small initial, the densely spiny shrub or small tree Dovyalis caffra of the Flacourtiaceae; its edible bright yellow fruit; Dingaan’s apricot; also called wild apricot (sense (a) see wild sense a); also attributive;
Kei lily, the red lily Cyrtanthus sanguineus of the Amaryllidaceae; also called fire lily.
1853 E. Armitage in J. Chapman Trav. in Int. (1868) II. 449The Kei apple, or Dingan’s Apricot, invaluable for forming thorny fences and yielding a pleasant fruit.
1859 Harvey & Sonder Flora Capensis II. 585Aberia Caffra, hab. Eastern districts and Kaffirland. A shrub or small tree,..fruit edible like a small yellowish apple. Colonial name, the Kei apple.
1868 W.H. Harvey Genera of S. Afr. Plants 16The ‘Kei apple’ (Aberia Caffra..) has 6 (or probably more) styles and placentae.
1876 H. Brooks Natal 185This fruit is familiarly known as the kei apple, or in some places as Dingaan’s apricot.
1887 S.W. Silver & Co.’s Handbk to S. Afr. 138The Kei Apple is the fruit of the Aberia Caffra, Hk., a shrub or small tree found in the eastern districts of the colony and in Kaffirland.
1890 A.G. Hewitt Cape Cookery 68Kei Apple Jelly.
1894 R. Marloth in Trans. of S. Afr. Phil. Soc. p.lxxxivYellow, like the berries of the Kei apple.
1894 J.F. Sewell Private Diary (1983) 152By 4 p.m. we had got the Kei-apple all round [erven] No 18 & 20, and also as far as No 1 as far as the holes were dug.
1910 R. Juta Cape Peninsula 93Edging the road and hiding the beach from travellers are thick hedges of Kei-apple, a prickly red berry, and of a low shrub.
1913 A. Glossop Barnes’s S. Afr. Hsehold Guide 87Serve with Tartar sauce...or Kei apple jelly.
1924 D. Fairbridge Gardens of S. Afr. 55Kei-apple forms an impenetrable fence, but it is more fitted for sheep-kraals than gardens.
1930 N. Stevenson Farmers of Lekkerbat 7In summer..the mud was as thick..as the dust in winter; especially near the hotel, where the kei-apple bush was always brown.
1958 I. Vaughan Diary 22Round the Church is a green hedge with large lovely cherries on it, Gladys Long said that they are Kei apples and not poison..but no one likes to eat Kei apples.
1989 Weekend Post 2 Dec. (Leisure) 3Beside the main street of Hankey stands a beautiful old specimen of Dovyalis caffra, the kei-apple tree.
1993 Weekend Post 20 Nov. (Leisure) 5Acacia, Bougainvillea, Kei Apple, Veld Fig.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 257Kei lily, Cyrtanthus sanguineus is known by this name in some parts of the Transkei.
c1969 E. Gledhill E. Cape Veld Flowers 82Cyrtanthus sanguineus..Kei Lily. Large Red Cyrtanthus...From Port Elizabeth to Bathurst, now rare. Occurs also in Natal.
1971 Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Gardening II. 386Kei lily...Bears 3–4 in. trumpet-shaped scarlet flowers.
1985 K. Pienaar Grow S. Afr. Plants 41Kei lily, with salmon-red flowers.
1989 E. Prov. Herald 18 Mar. 8For many years I have grown Kei Lilies, Cyrtanthus sanguineus. Many people in Port Elizabeth grow them, mostly in pots, and they flower very punctually in the middle of February.
1989 [see Knysna lily sense b].
2. Also ’Kei, and with small initial. In newspaper captions and headlines: elliptical for a. Transkei (see note at Transkei). b. Ciskei (see Ciskeian adjective). Also attributive.
1979 Voice 23 Sept.Pamphlets flood ’Kei.
1982 Rand Daily Mail 23 Nov. 1SAR men hit me — Kei Minister’s wife. The wife of the Transkei Minister of Justice was allegedly assaulted by employees of the South African Railways.
1987 City Press 15 Feb. 5 (headline)Kei’s ‘roadside people’ wait for a miracle.
1987 City Press (caption)Some of the 1 000s of Ciskeian refugees now living along the roadside in South Africa.
Transkei (see note at Transkei).
Ciskei (see Ciskeian adjective). Also attributive.
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18531993

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Kei apple
Kei lily

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