/ˈkʊksɪstə/, /ˈkʊksəstə(r)/
- Forms:
- koek sister, koeksusterShow more Also koek sister, koeksuster, koesijster, koesister, koesyster.
- Origin:
- Afrikaans, Dutch, MalayShow more Afrikaans koeksister, koesister, etymology obscure: perhaps from Dutch koek cake, or from Malay kuih cake, sweetmeat, seen in the form koesister) + sister, perhaps from sissen sizzle + agential suffix -er.
1. A twisted or plaited doughnut, deep-fried and immediately dipped into cold syrup. Also attributive. See also kossiter.
1891 H.J. Duckitt Hilda’s ‘Where Is It?’ 128Koesisters. (Batavian or old Dutch Sweetmeat Recipe.)
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 272Koesijsters, A confection or sweetmeat which has been boiled in fat and dipped in powdered sugar.
1930 M. Raubenheimer Tested S. Afr. Recipes 48Just dip the ‘Koek Sisters’ into the syrup and remove at once, else they will be too sweet.
1944 I.D. Du Plessis Cape Malays 42Contact with the Dutch colonists has left its mark. Many old Cape dishes, such as melktert and koeksisters are still to be found in the Malay home.
1949 L.G. Green In Land of Afternoon 63Koesisters are doughnuts of Malay origin, but the derivation of the name is not so easy. Some say that a mother was busy in the kitchen one day when her little daughter asked her what she was making. ‘Koek, susterjie,’ was the reply — hence the name.
1955 A. Delius Young Trav. in S. Afr. 111The children had a hamper of..sandwiches,..biltong,..and finally some syrup-soaked cakes called koeksisters.
1974 E. Prov. Herald 18 June 14The lives of a dozen schoolchildren who use a school bus in the Salem district could be in danger, claims..the bus driver, ‘In parts the road looks like a koeksuster’.
1981 E. Prov. Herald 30 Apr. 2The legendary koeksisters and melkterts that have graced innumerable South African elections are no more...At not one of the six polling stations in the area was there any sign of these traditional delicacies.
1987 C. Hope Hottentot Room 92When she baked she became a farmer’s daughter again: milk tart, plum pudding, fly cemetery and koeksusters.
1988 F. Williams Cape Malay Cookbk 6Saturdays were spent frying koesisters because my grandmother was also a koesister vendor.
1994 Sunday Times 23 Jan. 28 (advt)For the sweetest treat you’re ever likely to eat, there’s nothing like a koeksister. A traditional Cape confection thought to be of Malay origin, this deep-fried twisted doughnut dipped and basted with lashings of syrup..is mos seriously addictive.
2. figurative. Often used allusively, suggesting the traditions and values of the Afrikaner people. Also attributive.
- Note:
- Quotation 1990 is a pun on English ‘sister’.
1986 Personality 15 Sept. 16The man who really takes the koeksister for all-round twisted meanness.
1987 Personality 21 Oct. 78She continued to perform regularly on the ‘crimplene and koeksuster’ circuit.
1989 G. Silber in Sunday Times 30 Apr. 17The polished pectorals of a gallery of koeksuster-muscled female body-builders.
1989 Sunday Times 17 Dec. 11Sometimes it seems that this survivor would be dishing out political koeksisters, negotiating and meeting misplaced Popes no matter who was in power.
1990 Top Forty July 12Kim Irwin-Pack was there with his camera to catch the koeksisters and bier-manne having a fris time.
1991 Weekly Mail 19 Apr. 15The koeksuster tannies of the ANC?
A twisted or plaited doughnut, deep-fried and immediately dipped into cold syrup. Also attributive.
Often used allusively, suggesting the traditions and values of the Afrikaner people. Also attributive.
- Derivatives:
- Hence (nonce) koeksisterish adjective, koeksisterism noun.
1990 H.P. Toffoli in Style Nov. 50They call themselves the Cook Sisters but there’s nothing remotely koeksisterish about them. Stylish Sloane Rangers rather.
1993 J. Pearce in 22 Oct. 45I found myself trying to get profound concerning the implications of the former high dominee of hippie-punk-twisted-koeksusterism ending up doing an after-dinner slot in a venue which..might even attract the odd Stellenbosch academic.
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figurative or allusive
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koekoek, nounn.koelie, nounn.
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