skermn.
/skɛːm/, /skəːm/, U.S. /skərm/, /skɛ(ə)rm/, South African English /skɛːrəm/, /skɜːm/ South African.
1. 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.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > keeping of cattle > [noun] > fence or barrier
ward-dyke1561
horngarth1779
ox-fence1811
ox rail1844
oxer1859
skerm1861
society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > barricade > [noun] > other barriers
treble1569
firewall1578
herisson1704
boat work1782
tambour1834
gabionage1849
knife-rest1858
skerm1861
stockade tambour1892
1861 C. J. Andersson Okavango River xxv. 262 A few bushes having been cut down, and a sort of skarm constructed, we both ensconced ourselves at night-fall therein.
1864 J. T. Baines Explor. S.-W. Afr. 131 Two or three scherms for night-shooting had been thrown up.
1905 Outlook 29 July 124/1 With a terrific crash a mob of cattle burst from their scherm of thorns.
1943 D. Reitz No Outspan 70 Lion roared about our skerm.
1963 R. Lewcock Early 19th Cent. Archit. in S. Afr. viii. 137 In the small frontier farmhouses cooking was done in the open air, behind a simple screen shelter, or ‘skerm’.
2. A temporary dwelling used by nomads; also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > hut or hovel > [noun] > types of
lonquhardc1480
hothouse1643
ajoupa1666
penthouse1683
pandal?1692
bark-hut1744
log-tent1748
log cabin1770
bush-hut1775
log-hut1778
yurt1780
isba1784
beach hut1806
whare1807
bough-house1811
pondok1815
grass hut1818
hartebeest house1818
leaf hut1818
gunyah1820
grass house1823
slab-and-bark hut1826
slab-and-shingle hut1826
slab whare1826
rondavel1829
bush-house1835
skerm1835
jacal1838
toldo1839
log-shanty1847
wurley1847
maloca1853
palm hut1853
whare1853
hutmenta1857
bush-shanty1857
benab1860
pondokkie1862
bothan1863
lanaia1869
hogan1872
tenta1873
beehive-hut1884
leaf shelter1886
Oklahoma1889
goondie1890
cabana1898
troolie hut1899
tukul1901
fale1902
banda1908
kya1909
hut1913
obi1913
Nissen hut1917
Nissen1919
basha1921
tourist cabin1928
bunkie1935
wanigan1937
Quonset hut1942
chickee1943
iron lung1943
Quonset1943
1835 A. 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.
1885 H. R. Haggard King Solomon's Mines iv We went to work to build a scherm.
1894 E. 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.’
1936 C. Birkby Thirstland Treks x. 118 I saw white men living in skerms—huts made of matting laid over frames of thorn-bush boughs.
1960 Africa 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.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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