English

Alternative forms

• (noun): sambock, sambok, shambock, shambok, sjambock
• (verb): shambock, shambok, sjambock, sjamboke

Noun

sjambok ‎(plural sjamboks)

1. A stout whip, especially made of rhinoceros or hippopotamus hide.
   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, chapter II, pp. 25-6,

     He learnt that he was a slave, in spite of all the petty airs he might assume, a slave shackled to a yoke, to be scolded when he lagged, flogged when he rebelled with the sjambok of the modern driver, Threat of the Sack.

   • 1963, Thomas Pynchon, V.:

     Foppl stood holding a sjambok or cattle whip of giraffe hide, tapping the handle against his leg in a steady, syncopated figure.

   • 1979, André Brink, A Dry White Season, Vintage 1998, page 113:

     Several accusations had been brought in against her and every time she'd denied them she had been beaten with a sjambok.

   • 1989, United States Congress Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Subcommittee on African Affairs, United States Policy Toward South Africa: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on African Affairs, page 333:

     If dialogue is ever to have a chance, South Africans must find a way to turn away from violence in all its forms — the brutal violence of the sjambok

   • 2006 May 13/14, Weekend Argus, page 1:

     Police arrested almost 40 locals yesterday after a crowd took part in illegal marches and refused to disperse. The locals were armed with sticks, sjamboks and other weapons.

See also

• knout
• quirt
• whip
• cambuk

Verb

sjambok ‎(third-person singular simple present sjamboks, present participle sjambokking, simple past and past participle sjambokked)

1. (transitive) To whip with a sjambok; to horsewhip.

References

• 1989-1990, South African Department of Information (Apartheid era), South Africa 1989-90: official yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, volume 15 (1989; ISBN: 0797017291 and 9780797017290). Page 74: "bobotie, kiaal, sjambok, sosatie from Malay".
• 1983, Robert Ross, Cape of Torments: slavery and resistance in South Africa. International library of anthropology (Routledge, 1983; ISBN: 0710094078 and 9780710094070)
• 1978, Jean Branford, A Dictionary of South African English
• 1971, Roy Lewis, Yvonne Foy, Painting Africa white: the human side of British colonialism (Universe Books, 1971, ISBN: 0876631448 and 9780876631447)
• 1883, JKW Quarles van Ufford, Koloniale kroniek - De Economist (Springer, , )

Anagrams

• jamboks
• Kambojs

Dutch

Alternative forms

• sambok
• tjambok

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃɑmbɔk/

Etymology

From Javanese cambuk or Malay cambuk.

Noun

sjambok f ‎(plural sjambokken, diminutive sjambokje n)

1. a sjambok, a long heavy whip.