Wordnik Word of the Day for November 16, 2018 (4120 hits)
disselboom
One of the poles supporting a wagon.
The waggons, of which, including my two, there were ten, were drawn into the form of a square, and the disselboom of each securely lashed with reims to the underworks of that in front of it. Allan's Wife
Presently he emerged from under the side flap of the waggon where he slept, and remarking that it was really too cold to think of washing, climbed to her side by help of the disselboom, and kissed her.
Benita, an African romance
So we walked to where Marais's wagon stood at the end of the line, and found him sitting on the disselboom cutting up tobacco with his pocket-knife. Marie An Episode in The Life of the late Allan Quatermain
It was a highly ornamented, springless vehicle of wood and gilded, something like a packing-case with a pole, or as we should call it in South Africa, a disselboom, to which the horses were harnessed.
The Ancient Allan
I suppose everybody by this time knows, either from pictures or from having seen the thing itself, what a South African wagon is like; and also knows that it is drawn by a team of from twelve to eighteen oxen yoked together in pairs, the cleverest pair being yoked next the wagon to the disselboom -- which answers to the ordinary carriage pole where a pair of horses are driven abreast -- while the remainder of the team are yoked, also in pairs, to the trek chain, which is attached to the extremity of the disselboom. Through Veld and Forest An African Story
The word 'disselboom' comes from Dutch words meaning 'shaft' and 'beam'.
