donga
A usually dry, eroded watercourse running only in times of heavy rain.
Noun South Africa
- A usually dry, eroded watercourse running only in times of heavy rain.
- Major Pack-Beresford and other officers were shot down, and every unhorsed man remained necessarily as a prisoner under the very muzzles of the riflemen in the donga. - 1900, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Halt at...
- 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. - 1901, Ernest William Hornung, “The Knees of the...
- Thousands of miserable cattle and goats roamed everywhere making tracks that would someday form cracks which successive rains would open into gullies and dongas. - 1948, Henry Vollam Morton, In Search of South Africa,...
Origin
Etymology tree Proto-Bantu *mʊ̀dòngà Zulu ū́dongábor. Afrikaans dongabor. English donga Borrowed from Afrikaans donga, borrowed from Zulu ū́dongá, from Proto-Bantu *mʊ̀dòngà.
Forms
Noun Australia
- A transportable building providing accommodation for one person, often used on remote work sites or as tourist accommodation.
- Menzies Hotel ([Ph] 9024 2043; 22 Shenton St; s/d $48/65, donga $75) has old-style hotel rooms as well as - for that real goldfields experience - dongas (temporary miner′s abode, usually made from corrugated iron), and...
- He not only expects his fence to be perfect, he also expects his dongas to be the best workman′s huts in Australia, and that is what they are. - 2004, James Woodford, The Dog Fence, page 225:
- 2009, David Marr, The Ibdian Ocean Solution, Robyn Davidson (editor), The Best Australian Essays 2009, page 118, Workers building roads in the bush sleep in dongas like these and are well paid for their discomfort.
Origin
Unknown; probably connected in some way with Etymology 1.
Forms
Noun alt of, alternative
- Alternative spelling of donger (“penis”).