Cape kafferboom
- noun
- Archaic
:
kafferboom
- The garden's Cape kafferboom was covered in brilliant orange-scarlet flowers during early spring.
Examples
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Local farmers often use wood from the Cape kafferboom for making fence posts due to its softness and light weight.
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Bright coral-red seeds collected from the Cape kafferboom are sometimes used in decorative crafts.
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Look at the Cape kafferboom!
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The Cape kafferboom is beautiful.
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The garden's Cape kafferboom was covered in brilliant orange-scarlet flowers during early spring.
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Local farmers often use wood from the Cape kafferboom for making fence posts due to its softness and light weight.
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Bright coral-red seeds collected from the Cape kafferboom are sometimes used in decorative crafts.
Synonyms
A small partly evergreen tree from eastern South Africa with bright orange flowers and light wood used for fence posts
A small South African tree with many bright red flowers and red seeds
A small tree from South Africa with bright orange flowers and red seeds
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
Cape + kafferboom
This is a species/proper name containing a non‑English, lexicalized item ('kafferboom') that an average B1 learner would not be able to analyse; knowing 'Cape' only gives a geographic cue and does not convey the botanical meaning. The core meaning (a particular tree) is not transparently derivable from the constituents in English, so the expression is effectively idiomatic/opaque for learners.
Etymology
Cape kafferboom comes from old Afrikaans words: boom means 'tree' and 'Cape' names the Cape region, while 'kaffer' was an old word used by settlers and is now considered 'offensive'. So the name simply described a tree from the Cape, which is why it refers to this South African tree.