schans, noun

/skans//skɑːns/
Forms:
schants, schantzShow more Also schants, schantz, schanz, schanze, skans.
Plurals:
schanses, and (formerly) schansen.
Origin:
Dutch, AfrikaansShow more Dutch (Afrikaans skans), redoubt, breastwork, defensive works (cf. 17th century English sconce small fort, earthwork).
A barricade or breastwork, usually of stones and earth, used as cover from which to fire upon the enemy.
[1801 Damberger Trav. 8 (Pettman)The line-guard, also called the schanz wache, or foot guard.]
1848 J. Tindall Jrnl (1959) 88They heard a strange noise near one of the ‘schansen’, forts so called but nothing more than a circle of stones piled 18 inches high and so loosely that the levelling of the musket frequently causes them to fall.
1868 The Jrnl 6 Mar. 3Platberg was strongly fortified...After breaking down the schansen there and at other places we crossed the Caledon.
1872 E.J. Dunn in A.M.L. Robinson Sel. Articles from Cape Monthly Mag. (1978) 50Around are rocky kopjes, once the lurking-places of Korannas and Bushmen. Their schantsen still remain.
1880 Times (U.K.) 18 Oct. 4Some of these paths are..barred by lines of schanzes, or stone barricades.
1882 C. Du Val With Show through Sn Afr. II. 96They kept up a lively fusillade on the enemy above, tolerably secure behind their kraal-walls, schanzes, and stones.
1882 C.L. Norris-Newman With Boers in Tvl 155Boers erecting schanzes and earthworks on hill.
1900 H. Blore Imp. Light Horseman 59On a commanding peak of one chain..the Boers had..raised a schans, that is a redoubt of stones loosely piled upon each other, behind which they might shelter while shooting at an attacking force.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 427Schanz,..A protection or defence made of stones, earth, thorn-bushes, etc.
1933 W. Macdonald Romance of Golden Rand 174It was strongly fortified. Huge stone schanzes blocked the tortuous pathways leading up the mountain-side.
1940 F.B. Young City of Gold 192It’s a nasty position to attack, all rocks and schanzes; the Kaffirs will have plenty of cover from behind which to shoot.
1963 S. Cloete Rags of Glory 228Volley after volley came from Lee-Metfords in the stone schans twenty yards away.
1969 Grocott’s Mail 28 Mar.There are still..some signs of the schanzes, earthworks, hastily thrown up when General Smuts and his commandoes approached the district.
A barricade or breastwork, usually of stones and earth, used as cover from which to fire upon the enemy.
Derivatives:
Hence schans  transitive verb, to protect (a position) by means of defensive works.
1888 D.C.F. Moodie Hist. of Battles & Adventures II. 185The top of this mountain was about a mile long and about half a mile broad, and was also completely schanzed in every direction.
1901 Contemp. Rev. (U.K.) Dec. 888The English had schanzed the long ridge for a long distance.
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18011969

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schans, v.

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schammel, nounn.scheduled, adjectiveadj.
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