Also velt. [a. older Du. veldt, now veld (velt): see FIELD sb.]
1. In South Africa, the unenclosed country or open pasture-land.
Freq. with defining terms denoting character or locality, as bush-, grass-, high, low, sour, sweet veldt. Hence occas. in pl. (quot. 1876).
α. 1852. C. Barter, Dorp & Veld, 43. My preference for a less confined sleeping-place on the open ‘veld.’
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, ix. 404. The velt is now full of a poisonous herb, which is certain death in a few hours to oxen.
1876. Encycl. Brit., V. 42/1. The pastoral lands or velds … are distinguished according to the nature of the grass or sedge which they produce as ‘sweet’ or ‘sour.’
1892. Tablet, 13 Aug., 260. The priest lived under a tent on the veld.
β. 1862. Colenso, Pentateuch, I. 114. Joseph … wandering alone upon the veldt in search of his brethren.
1879. Daily News, 28 June, 5/6. In the veldt … with a saddle for one’s pillow.
1888. Times (weekly ed.), 25 May, 7/3. Streets and squares and public buildings, where a year and a half ago was nothing but the boundless veldt.
2. attrib., as veldt fire, knowledge, lily, side, stool.
Similar uses are common from 1900 onwards.
1861. C. J. Andersson, Okavango River, 49. The tremendous ‘veldt’ fires, which, ravaging the country far and wide, make it like a huge fiery furnace.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, i. 25. A deal table and a lot of velt stools and wagon chests the only furniture.
1895. J. G. Millais, Breath fr. Veldt (1899), 78. A faithful native, who instructed him in veldt knowledge and all the arts of spooring.
1899. Daily News, 24 Oct., 5/4. Here the veldt lilies and creeping convolvulus are beginning to bloom.
b. Special Comb. (chiefly with the spelling veld), as veld-cornet, = field-cornet FIELD sb. 21; veld fever (see quot.); veld-kost [Du. kost food] (see quot.); veldman, veldtsman, one skilled in living or hunting on the veldt; veldt pig, the Ethiopian wart-hog (Phacochœrus ethiopicus); veld rat, the striped rat of S. Africa; veld sickness (see quot.); veld sores, a form of skin eruption due to living on the open veldt.
1852. J. C. Brown, Arbousset’s Narrative, xxiii. 350. He went to the drinking place of a *veldcornet, a kind of country magistrate.
1899. Rider Haggard, Swallow, ix. I, as Veld-Cornet of the district, have tried the case according to the law.
1899. Mrs. Phillips, S. Afr. Recoll., 9. *‘Veld fever’ is a malady, a longing indescribable, which comes over many South Africans, who have lived much on the veld.
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., 82. The *veld-kost we will gather. Ibid., 523. Veld-kost, literally country-food, is the term used for the wild roots and bulbs eaten by the Bushmen.
1899. Contemp. Rev., Oct., 475. Stout wardens of the marches who are known to be as good *veldmen and riflemen as any Boers in Africa.
1895. J. G. Millais, Breath fr. Veldt (1899), 286. Tace … liked to parade himself as an old Veldtsman.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, vi. 155. Just after sunset … flac farc (*veldt pig) came out of a hole near me.
1905. Rep. Brit. Assoc., 551. The disease has been observed in *veld rats (Arvicanthus pumilio), cats, and in one dog.
1896. R. Wallace, Farming Ind. Cape Colony, 82. Animals brought from sweet veld suffer from what is termed *veld sickness, which results from insufficient nutrition and the hard and irritating nature of the food consumed.
1898. Rae, Malaboch Campaign, 61. Owing to the insufficient supply of vegetables, there were several cases of *veld sores.
1901. Brit. Med. Jrnl., No. 2095. 486. Veld sores formed the most frequent entry in the morning company sick reports.
