kraal

See also: Kraal

English

WOTD – 16 November 2014

Etymology

From colonial Dutch kraal, from Portuguese curral. Doublet of corral.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /kɹɑːl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːl

Noun

kraal (plural kraals)

1. In Central and Southern Africa, a small rural community.
   • 1861, Charles John Andersson, “chapter VII”, in Lake Ngami, page 89:

     Onanis is the permanent residence of a kraal of very poor Hill-Damaras, who subsist chiefly upon the few wild roots which their sterile neighborhood produces.

   • 1979, André Brink, A Dry White Season, Vintage, published 1998, page 88:

     ‘The paraffin box covered with newsprint, and the primus, and the bucket standing on the floor, and a photo of our kraal’s chief on the wall.’

2. In Central and Southern Africa, a rural village of huts surrounded by a stockade.
   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus, published 2010, page 6:

     A kraal was a homestead and usually included a simple fenced-in enclosure for animals, fields for growing crops, and one or more thatched huts.

3. An enclosure for livestock.
   • 2000 July 3, Jonathan Amos, “'Funny creature' toast of Botswana”, in BBC News Online:

     The animal, which is now six years old, was born naturally from the mating of a female goat with a male sheep sharing the same kraal.

Synonyms

• (livestock enclosure): corral, pen

Translations

rural African community

• French: kraal (fr) m
• Georgian: კრაალი (ḳraali)
• Swedish: kraal (sv)

rural African village of huts surrounded by a stockade

• Georgian: კრაალი (ḳraali)
• Swedish: kraal (sv) c

enclosure for livestock

• Afrikaans: kraal (af)
• Dutch: kraal (nl)
• Georgian: კრაალი (ḳraali)
• Swedish: kraal (sv) c

See also

• boma (East African)
• crawl (Jamaican English)
• Corral (Spanish)

Verb

kraal (third-person singular simple present kraals, present participle kraaling, simple past and past participle kraaled)

1. (transitive) To enclose (livestock) within a kraal or stockade.
   • 1861, Charles John Andersson, Lake Ngami, chapter XXVIII, page 343:

     […] he knew that one of these beasts was in the habit of harassing the goat-kids, which, for better security, he had kraaled against the wall of the house.

Synonyms

• (to enclose livestock): corral

Translations

to enclose livestock within a kraal or stockade

Anagrams

• kalar, Kalra, Larak, Karla

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch kraal, from Portuguese curral.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /krɑːl/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

kraal (plural krale)

1. A kraal, corral: enclosure for livestock

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kraːl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: kraal
• Rhymes: -aːl

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch crael, syncopic form of corael. See koraal, from the same ultimate source.

Noun

kraal f (plural kralen, diminutive kraaltje n)

1. a bead (of a necklace or abacus)
2. several similarly spheric objects

Derived terms

• kraalboom
• kraalkruid
• kraaloog
• kralen
• kralenketting
• kralensnoer
• strijkkraal

Descendants

• → Sranan Tongo: krara, krala
  • → Aukan: kaala
  • → Lokono: korara
  • → Ndyuka-Trio Pidgin: kalala, kralu

Etymology 2

Noun

kraal n (plural kralen, diminutive kraaltje n)

1. Obsolete form of koraal.

Derived terms

• zeekraal

Etymology 3

From Portuguese curral.

Noun

kraal f (plural kralen, diminutive kraaltje n)

1. a kraal, corral (enclosure for livestock)

Descendants

• Afrikaans: kraal

Anagrams

• klaar