Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun South African: A fighting stick usually with a knob on the end.
  • noun A bludgeon.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

A portmanteau word from Afrikaans Knop meaning knob + Khoi-San kirri or keeri meaning stick.

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Examples

  • The coat of arms, composed of elephant tusks, the ears of wheat, the shield, the human figures, the spear and knobkierie, the protea, the secretary bird and the rising sun, is flanked by the motto:!

    ADDRESS BY MOSIUOA LEKOTA DURING THE STATE OF THE NATION DEBATE 2004

  • The new mace, in the shape of a knobkierie, was designed to reflect the history, tradition, diversity, culture, and languages of South Africa.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2004

  • The universal symbol of medicine, a dagger, has been replaced with a knobkierie symbolising African culture.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1998

  • An off-duty police constable's jaw was broken by a knobkierie blow and a bystander was hospitalised after being hit with an axe by a marcher, a police spokesman said.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1994

  • The meeting had barely got underway when a man wielding a knobkierie was removed after he marched onto the stage and tussled with two ANC marshalls.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 1993

  • The girl allegedly died due to a skull fracture after Nkasi had given her a beating in which he hit her over her body and head with tree branches and a knobkierie.

    AllAfrica News: Latest 2010

  • The girl allegedly died due to a skull fracture after Nkasi had given her a beating in which he hit her over her body and head with tree branches and a knobkierie.

    AllAfrica News: Latest 2010

  • A rural community has vowed that a woman accused of beating her nephew to death with a knobkierie will never be a free woman.

    IOL: News 2010

  • The girl allegedly died due to a skull fracture after Nkasi had given her a beating in which he hit her over her body and head with tree branches and a knobkierie.

    AllAfrica News: Latest 2010

  • A 62-year-old man allegedly beat a mugger to death with a knobkierie in Seshego, Limpopo police said on Wednesday.

    unknown title 2009

Comments

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  • The shillelagh though left home in Kerry,

    In the veldt it's ok - not to worry:

    For your kind of club

    There's an African sub;

    They fustigate with the knobkierie.

    January 29, 2016