onderstel, noun

/ˈɔn(d)ə(r)stel/
Origin:
AfrikaansShow more Afrikaans, onder below, lower + stel frame.
Wagon-making
The chassis or underframe of a trek wagon (see trek noun sense 12), on which the body is supported. Also Englished form understel.
Note:
Originally made of heavy ironwood, the onderstel consists of front and rear parts, the voorstel and agterstel respectively.
[1822 W.J. Burchell Trav. I. 150The whole of the wheels, axletrees, and parts connected with them, constituting what the boors call the onderstel or carriage, is well covered with tar.]
1893 F.C. Selous Trav. & Adventure 24When I went to buy corn I had taken the wheels and ‘understel’ from the waggon, and by putting in a short ‘langwaggon’ and making a false bed plank, constructed a small light vehicle. [Source Note: Understel is the lower part of a South African waggon upon which the body is supported. The langwaggon is a portion of the understel.]
1919 J.Y. Gibson in S. Afr. Jrnl of Science July 2Burchell, describing one [wagon] which he had acquired in 1811, says that ‘The framework of the tilt was made of bamboo cane’, that the sides or leeren were painted on the outside, but that the lower parts called the onder stel, were ‘well covered with tar’.
1948 H.V. Morton In Search of S. Afr. 83For the onderstel, or under-frame, the Boer wheelwrights in the old days employed a rare and heavy timber, now no longer used, called ironwood.
1974 A.A. Telford in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. X. 569The chassis or onderstel comprised two pairs of wheels, the axles of which were linked together with a timber perch or houtlangwa.
The chassis or underframe of a trek wagon (see trek noun sense 12), on which the body is supported. Also Englished form understel.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

18221974

Browse Related Words

By Category

Transport

By Origin

Afrikaans
onderbaatjie, nounn.only, adverbadv.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English