donga
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Etymology 1
[edit] Noun
donga (plural dongas)
- (Australian) A transportable building with single rooms, often used on remote work sites or as tourist accommodation.
[edit] Usage notes
- Usually used in outback Australia, especially the northwest.
[edit] Etymology 2
From the Nguni group of languages. A washed out ravine or gully.
[edit] Pronunciation
[edit] Noun
donga (plural dongas)
- (South Africa) A usually dry, eroded watercourse running only in times of heavy rain.
- 1901, Ernest William Hornung, “The Knees of the Gods”, in Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman, Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 284:
- There were trenches for us men, but no place of safety for our horses nearer than this long and narrow donga which ran from within our lines towards those of the Boers.
- 1948, Henry Vollam Morton, In Search of South Africa,[1] Methuen, page 168:
- Thousands of miserable cattle and goats roamed everywhere making tracks that would someday form cracks which successive rains would open into gullies and dongas.
- 1901, Ernest William Hornung, “The Knees of the Gods”, in Raffles: Further Adventures of the Amateur Cracksman, Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 284:
[edit] Translations
[edit] References
- Jean Bradford, A Dictionary of South African English, Oxford (1978).
