moocha
(ˈmuːtʃə)
Also moochi(e), muchi, mutsha, mutshi, umutsha.
[Bantu.]
A short skirt worn as a loin-cloth by the aboriginal inhabitants of eastern South Africa before the introduction of European dress.
| 1878 H. A. Roche On Trek in Transvaal xv. 325 A wee little Kafir boy with nothing upon him but his ‘moochie’, or tails, drives by a herd of calves. 1885 R. Haggard King Solomon's Mines x. 153 He slipped off the ‘moocha’ or girdle round his middle, and stood naked before us. 1898 Chambers's Jrnl. 8 Jan. 95/2 His only dress consisted of a monkey skin muchi, or apron, and in his hand he carried a rifle. 1909 N. Paul Child in Midst 139 Presently he appeared, a tall thin native, with no clothing except a cow-hide mutshi, with flaps around his waist. 1923 Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 222/1 The native kilt or moocha composed of strips of raw hide. 1936 Blackw. Mag. Mar. 304/1 All the bravery of the Zulu war-dress was there:..the leopard-skin karosses, the embroidered moochas, the white goat-hide garters. 1936 Williams & May I am Black xviii. 181 There came before his eyes a boy of fourteen years wearing only a moochi of cowhide polished with pig's fat. 1948 O. Walker Kaffirs are Lively 30 The menfolk stride along bare-thighed, in swinging umutshas of monkey-tails. 1967 E. M. Slatter My Leaves are Green 1 He wore only his ‘mutsha’ of monkey-skin tails. 1970 Rand Daily Mail 29 Oct. 12 (caption) Beaded ‘muchi’. |