Meaning of middelmannetjie | Babel Free

Definitions

A ridge between ruts made by wheels in a dirt or gravel road.

South-Africa

Examples

“Spoor [of a hippopotamus] […] Well-worn paths, some 20 cm wide, lead up from rivers, the four-toed tracks running parallel, and clearly indicating a ‘middelmannetjie’.”

“An old Ford was going down a road that had a formidable middelmannetjie (hump down the middle). This middelmannetjie was so high that the front axle of the car caught on it, the car somersaulted, and Trichardt and his passenger, a man called Van Niekerk, were flung out and broke their necks.”

“The farm road with the high middelmannetjie finally came out at a big farmhouse with a lot of chickens running around.”

“[T]he two tracks made by four-wheel-drive vehicles with high clearances left a never-ending high point in the middle – the middelmannetjie as known to local whites. I had to keep either the right or the left wheels on it.”

“[Y]ou are riding at 80 km/h on a typical Karoo dirt road, with clear two lane tyre tracks, and a middelmannetjie – that collection of sand, pebbles and dust dividing the 'lanes'. You are looking at the herd of springbok to your right, and you stray onto the middelmannetjie. The back wheel starts hunting and swerving.”

CEFR level