Dictionary

sjambok en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈʃæmbɒk/

Etymology

From Afrikaans sjambok, from Dutch sjambok, from Javanese cambuk, and as borrowed in Malay: modern Indonesian and Malay, ultimately from Persian چابک (čâbok). Originally spelt in the colonial Dutch transliteration tscamboek. The term was imported by VOC officials, Dutch merchants, the Maardijkers (Maluku (Moluccan) freemen and burghers), and Inlanders (Javanese and other modern Indonesian slaves and political exiles expelled to Dutch South Africa). Doublet of chabuk.

Meanings

1. (South-Africa) A stout whip, especially made of rhinoceros or hippopotamus hide.
   • Foppl stood holding a sjambok or cattle whip of giraffe hide, tapping the handle against his leg in a steady, syncopated figure. 1963, Thomas Pynchon, V.:
   • If dialogue is ever to have a chance, South Africans must find a way to turn away from violence in all its forms — the brutal violence of the sjambok 1989, United States Congress Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Subcommittee on African Affairs, United States Policy Toward South Africa: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on African Affairs, page 333:
   • Police arrested almost 40 locals yesterday after a crowd took part in illegal marches and refused to disperse. The locals were armed with sticks, sjamboks and other weapons. 2006 May 13/14, Weekend Argus, page 1:
   • Several accusations had been brought in against her and every time she'd denied them she had been beaten with a sjambok. 1979, André Brink, A Dry White Season, Vintage, published 1998, page 113:
   • He learnt that he was a slave, in spite of all the petty airs he might assume, a slave shackled to a yoke, to be scolded when he lagged, flogged when he rebelled with the sjambok of the modern driver, Threat of the Sack. 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter II, in Capricornia, pages 25–6:

Forms

Relateds

knout · cambuk · whip · quirt

sjambok en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈʃæmbɒk/

Etymology

From Afrikaans sjambok, from Dutch sjambok, from Javanese cambuk, and as borrowed in Malay: modern Indonesian and Malay, ultimately from Persian چابک (čâbok). Originally spelt in the colonial Dutch transliteration tscamboek. The term was imported by VOC officials, Dutch merchants, the Maardijkers (Maluku (Moluccan) freemen and burghers), and Inlanders (Javanese and other modern Indonesian slaves and political exiles expelled to Dutch South Africa). Doublet of chabuk.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To whip with a sjambok; to horsewhip.

Forms