English
Noun
donga
- Australian English A transportable building with single rooms, often used on remote work sites or as tourist accomodation.
Usage note: Usually used in Outback|outback Australia, especially the northwest.
Etymology
From the Nguni group of languages. A washed out ravine or gully.
Pronunciation
italbrac|AUS IPA|/d���ɡ�/, IPA|/d��ɡ�/
Noun
donga
- South African English A usually dry, eroded watercourse running only in times of heavy rain.
Morton: In Search of South Africa: 1948. Thousands of miserable cattle and goats roamed everywhere making tracks that would someday form cracks which successive rains would open into gullies and dongas.
Hornung: Raffles: 1899 (p 301 in 1994 edition). There were trenches for us men, but no place of safety for our horses nearer than this long and narrow donga which ran from within our lines towards those of the Boers.
References
Jean Bradford: A Dictionary of South African English. Oxford 1978.
Category:English words which may have multiple etymologies
de:donga
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