tok-tokkie, noun

/tɔkˈtɔki//tɒkˈtɒki/
Forms:
Also tock-tockie, and (formerly) toktokje.
Origin:
Afrikaans, DutchShow more Afrikaans toktokkie, tok-tok from Dutch tokken to tap, knock softly, from tok a tap, rap (probably onomatopoeic) + -ie.
1.
a. Any of several tapping beetles of the Tenebrionidae, especially Dichtha cubica. Also shortened form tok, and attributive.
[1893 W.C. Scully Between Sun & Sand 37 (Pettman)Quaint beetles crawled out from under the stones and beat their soft tok-tok-tok — on the ground, signalling to prospective mates.]
1907 J.P. Fitzpatrick Jock of Bushveld 292At my feet a pair of tock tockie beetles, hump backed and bandy legged, came toiling slowly and earnestly along.
1913 J.J. Doke Secret City 149That lazy toktokje, caught out after a long night’s carouse, lumbered along trailing a shadow after it.
1948 V.M. Fitzroy Cabbages & Cream 200She knows just how to execute tok-tokkie beetles.
1952 L.G. Green Lords of Last Frontier 34Koch is..the world’s leading authority on the desert beetles called tenebrionidae — or ‘tok-tokkies’, in South Africa.
1958 I. Vaughan Diary 8There are tok tokkies..the knocking kind of beetle. One day I had two toks in my room...In the night..the toks got out and started to walk, the wives looking for the husbands which were mixed up...The husbands stands still and knock with his stumick on the ground and the wives knock back.
1974 B. Smit in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. X. 519The true toktokkies or tapping beetles belong to the genera Psammodes and Molurini. Their bodies are almost spherical and as hard as nuts.
1980 E. Prov. Herald 24 Mar. 8The toktokkie season is upon us again. All over the Eastern Cape these clumsy, dull black or brown beetles are blundering around the countryside in search of mates.
1986 Scholtz & Holm Insects 258The often very stout, globular species of these groups (sc. the subtribes Phanerotomeina and Molurina) are known in South Africa as toktokkies because of the rapid tapping sound they produce when striking the abdomen on the ground.
1991 F.G. Butler Local Habitation 183I remember an enchanted day on the Grobler’s Kloof road, stopping the car to watch — and listen to — tok-tokkie beetles.
1993 Weekend Post 24 Oct. (Leisure) 7The common ‘toktokkie’ beetles..have shiny brown bodies with a rough and darker-coloured thorax section. They are called toktokkies because they tap their abdomen on the ground which, it is believed, attracts the females in the mating season.
b. transferred sense A simple toy made of a cotton reel with an elastic band threaded through the central hole, held in place by a match-stick at either end, and wound tightly, so that the reel is propelled forwards by the protruding ends of the match-sticks as the elastic band unwinds. Also attributive.
1969 Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)Ma, it’s tok tokkie season, can I have a cotton reel — a big one?
1971 Informant, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)The toktokkie craze is on again and all the cotton reels are plastic and no good.
1975 Levick & Mullins ‘Prep’ Story 147It might be interesting to list the Prep crazes:..Woer-woer, Toktokkie, [etc.].
2.
a. Any of several children’s games which involve tricking unsuspecting victims, particularly the game of knocking on doors and running away; tick-tock.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 505Tok-tokje..is the name of a boy’s trick — a bullet is fastened by a piece of thread which is passed through a door-knocker and pulled from the other side of the street so that it knocks at the door. It has its variants.
1972 Beeton & Dorner in Eng. Usage in Sn Afr. Vol.3 No.1, 38Toktokkie,..schoolboys’ game of knocking at doors and running [a]way.
1982 D. Kramer Short Back & Sides 8It was there..that we played golf on the rugby field and tok-tokkie on hot summer nights.
1984 Daily Dispatch 16 Mar. 16A man..shot dead a school-boy playing toktokkie..after he and two friends had rung the doorbell..late at night and then hidden in the garden.
1987 Fair Lady Mar. 7My teenage son plays toktokkie and cricket with our neighbours’ maid.
b. transferred sense The name given to a fund-raising campaign for the National Cancer Association; the volunteers who knock on doors for this campaign. Also attributive.
1978 Het Suid-Western 22 Feb.Official tok-tokkie will be played in George next month when 150 women start knocking on doors to collect money for the National Cancer Association.
1979 Het Suid-Western 10 Aug.This is the second time the National Cancer Association has played tok-tokkie in George. Last year R2 500 was collected.
1983 S. Afr. Digest 12 Aug. 3A nation-wide Toktokkie campaign by the National Cancer Association..is aimed at distributing educational pamphlets and collecting funds.
1989 Grocott’s Mail 29 Mar. 1Some 40 000 volunteers, or ‘Toktokkies’ as they are known, will be visiting homes throughout the country..in an attempt to raise a target of R4-million.
Any of several tapping beetles of the Tenebrionidae, especially Dichtha cubica. Also shortened form tok, and attributive.
A simple toy made of a cotton reel with an elastic band threaded through the central hole, held in place by a match-stick at either end, and wound tightly, so that the reel is propelled forwards by the protruding ends of the match-sticks as the elastic band unwinds. Also attributive.
Any of several children’s games which involve tricking unsuspecting victims, particularly the game of knocking on doors and running away; tick-tock.
The name given to a fund-raising campaign for the National Cancer Association; the volunteers who knock on doors for this campaign. Also attributive.
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tokoloshe, tikoloshe, nounn.tolbos, nounn.
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