α. 1800s barboon, 1800s boerbon, 1800s boereboon, 1800s boorbom, 1800s boorbon, 1800s bourbon, 1800s burben, 1800s burbom, 1800s– boerboon, 1900s boerboen, 1900s– boerboom.
β. 1900s– boerbean.
boerboonn.
/ˈbʊəbuːn/, /ˈbʊəbʊən/, U.S. /ˈbʊrˌbun/, South African English /ˈbʊəbʊən/ South African.
Any of various southern African leguminous shrubs or trees comprising the genus Schotia, typically having clusters of bright red or pink flowers and edible seeds in flattened woody pods. Also: the seeds of this plant.Also called Hottentot's bean.
ΚΠ
1802 Evangelical Mag. Feb. 77 There grows also the Boereboon (called by the natives Inquaem) a tree which produces flowers of a beautiful red colour.
a1871 J. Goldswain Chron. (1946) I. 76 As soon as the Cattle came up to a Burbom..Tree they Cattle returned back and..we saw that in this tree thear must be a Kaffer.
1883 in Papers relating to Her Majesty's Colonial Possessions: Rep. 1881–3 (1884) 81 in Parl. Papers (C. 4015) LIV. 1 Schotia tamarindifolia... The beans from the pods of this plant are roasted and eaten in the Albany districts, where they are called Boerboom.
1966 E. Palmer Plains of Camdeboo v. 88 I picked out a fragment of boerboon pod.
1996 A. Barbour Fodor's S. Afr. (new ed.) 261 The stone and thatch structure lies in a forest of ebony and boerbean and commands impressive views of the river.
2008 Cape Times (Nexis) 28 Mar. (Entertainment section) 18 We identify the signature trees of the Karoo—the bleached white trunks of shady 500-year-old shepherd trees, the stubby boerboon and the thorny Acacia karoo.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2019; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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