释义 |
‖ skerm S. Afr.|skɛrm| Also skarm, scherm, schirm. [Afrikaans skerm, a. Du. scherm, = G. schirm screen, protection.] a. A screen or barrier constructed of brushwood or the like, to serve as a protection for troops, as an ambuscade from which to shoot game, or to prevent cattle from straying. b. A temporary dwelling used by nomads.
1835A. Smith Diary 4 Nov. (1940) II. 272 Have neither cattle nor chiefs, cut all the hair off, use red clay, have no fixed residence, make skerms under a bush. 1861C. J. Andersson Okavango xxv. 262 A few bushes having been cut down, and a sort of skarm constructed, we both ensconced ourselves at night-fall therein. 1864T. Baines Explor. in S.-W. Afr. 131 Two or three scherms for night-shooting had been thrown up. 1885Rider Haggard Solomon's Mines iv, We went to work to build a scherm. 1894E. Glanville Fair Colonist xxiv. 186 The gentlemen, you know, will take a tent, and our dining-room will be a skerm. ‘Good gracious! what is that?’ ‘A large canvas drawn over the waggon-top and stretched out to some trees, with canvas sides and an open front.’ 1905Outlook 29 July 124/1 With a terrific crash a mob of cattle burst from their scherm of thorns. 1936C. Birkby Thirstland Treks x. 118, I saw white men living in skerms—huts made of matting laid over frames of thorn-bush boughs. 1943D. Reitz No Outspan 70 Lion roared about our skerm. 1960Africa 4 Oct. 343 It always amuses me to speak of residence when I visualize the nomadic !Kung..building their nest-like grass shelters (scherms) for a stay of a few weeks. 1963R. Lewcock Early 19th Cent. Architecture in S. Afr. viii. 137 In the small frontier farmhouses cooking was done in the open air, behind a simple screen shelter, or ‘skerm’. |