skoffn.
/skɒf/, U.S. /skɔf/, /skɑf/, South African English /skɒf/ South African.
A stage of a journey, a period of travel between outspans.
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society > travel > aspects of travel > a journey > [noun] > a stage in a journey
mansiona1382
journey1490
gests1550
jessa1593
stage1603
stade1616
manzil1619
skoff1785
pipe1793
leg1898
lap1932
1785 G. Forster tr. A. Sparrman Voy. Cape Good Hope I. 132 Four such hours with a horse, or with eight oxen, are reckoned to make one skoft.
1801 J. Barrow Acct. Trav. Interior S. Afr. 1797–8 I. ii. 55 Each day's journey is called a skoff; and the length of these is generally regulated by local circumstances, being from five to fifteen hours.
1835 H. I. Venable in D. J. Kotzé Lett. Amer. Missionaries (1950) 70 The Dutch call a day's journey a schoft. For oxen in good condition a schoft is from twenty to twenty-four miles.
1892 R. Churchill Men, Mines & Animals S. Afr. ix. 134 We have done twenty-five miles from Silika in three ‘skoffs’, which is excellent trekking.
1932 L. Fouche in C. Fuller Louis Trigardt's Trek p. xv It became imperative to ascertain the value of Trigardt's unit, the length of a ‘skof’.
1969 A. Fugard Boesman & Lena i. 2 That last skof was hard. Against the wind... Heavier and heavier. Every step.
1972 L. G. Green When Journey's Over (1973) v. 50 The normal day on the road was made up of two or three stages known as skofte.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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