klompie, noun1

Forms:
clompie, clompjeShow more Also clompie, clompje, clumpjie, clumpy, klompje, klompjie, klumpjie.
Origin:
Afrikaans, DutchShow more Afrikaans (earlier Dutch klompje), a (small) lump, crowd, lot, bunch, heap, klomp + diminutive suffix -ie.
A group or cluster of people, animals, plants, or other objects; clump; klomp.
1853 W.R. King Campaigning in Kaffirland 215Even at three quarters of a mile, we were able to disperse small ‘clumpjies’ of Kaffirs and cattle.
1864 T. Baines Explor. in S.-W. Afr. 241Snyman also saw nothing except one ‘klumpjie’ of kameels.
1864 T. Baines Explor. in S.-W. Afr. 453The chief was killed and his tribe utterly dispersed,..and now they are here and there in clumpjies.
1884 Queenstown Free Press 19 Feb.His neighbours..were continually losing small and large ‘clompjes’ of sheep.
1896 H.A. Bryden Tales of S. Afr. 70Suddenly we came upon a klompje of giraffe.
1900 B. Mitford Aletta 108The mimosa and prickly pear klompjes were a favourite haunt of those splendid game birds.
1900 B. Mitford Aletta [see draai sense 1 b].
1910 R. Juta Cape Peninsula 112Tall flowering reeds grow in klompjes.
1911 D.B. Hook ’Tis but Yesterday 205A ‘clumpy’ of bush was allotted to the captives, underneath which there was shelter from dew.
1913 J.J. Doke Secret City 257Since the destruction wrought by the great flood, the klompje of native huts..had been rebuilt on higher ground.
1917 C.G. Carter Informant, Westminster, Free State 8 JulyThere are a good many South Africans here (sc. in London), and whenever you see little klompies together you can bet they are refreshing their dutch vocabulary.
1920 F.C. Cornell Glamour of Prospecting 79Paauw, that most magnificent of bustards, was abundant..; klompjes of four or five together rising repeatedly a few dunes ahead of us, but always well out of gunshot.
1937 S. Cloete Turning Wheels 180Each clompie of beasts had its own herders, black or coloured, who looked after them.
1945 M. Hone Sarah-Elizabeth 42They sat in the shade of a klompie of weeping willows.
1963 S. Cloete Rags of Glory 44Great klompies of them (sc. stallions) could live together with hardly a serious quarrel till a female came along.
1973 The 1820 Vol.46 No.9, 10A dry, arid, barren waste of illimitable distances.., with every now and then a klompie of trees, very green against the sombre background of brown veld.
1990 G. Haresnape in M. Leveson Firetalk 30They disturbed a good-sized klompie of baboon.
A group or cluster of people, animals, plants, or other objects; clump; klomp.
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18531990