1775_SKCPN

Knysna

Knysna

K 3423 AA

Toponymica Hottentotica: A2 (H-Z)

23.125

-34.125

12.5 km radius

afr Thunberg 1772 RESA 1 207 'Neisena'. Sparrman 1775 kaart 't’Naisina'. Gordon 1778 ms / 141 '...en quam na omtrent drie uren...aan Neisenas mond, op de plaats van Stefanus Terblanche. Ging na Neisenas mond aan strand...hoog en krantsig'. Van Plettenberg 1778 GM RZA 4 55 '...passeerden...de Nijsna...tusschen twee zeer hoge en steyle rotsen als door eene poort in zee uytloopt'. Le Vaillant 1782 Travels / 176 '...we reached the Nysena...' Janssens 1803 GM RZA 4 117 '...toen wy aan de drift van de Nysna aankwamen...' Van Reenen DG 1803 VRV 18 62 'Neysna, aan deze zyde van de Plettenbergsbaay...' Lichtenstein 1803-6 RISA 1 317 'Neisna-Lluss'. Victorin 1854 Travels 38 'Nejsna' [en voetnoot van Sweedse uitgewer JW Grill] 'The original name in the Hottentot language of this river and place was tNaisina, which was shortened to Nejsna by the Dutch and written Knysna by the English'. Hewitt 1876 CMM 13 169 '...the Knysna, a Hottentot word which is said to mean a fern. Even this appropriate name was in danger some years ago of being given up for Melville or Newhaven, rival ends of the same village, but an energetic civil-commissioner came to the rescue and induced the postal and other authorities to adopt the word Knysna'. Anon 1914 laangehaal deur Pettman in SAJS 12 1691 '...in a paragraph in De Kerkbode (Nov. 26, 1914) it is said that the name has reference to the two steep krantzes between which men must pass to the little port inside. The old Hottentots, it says, spoke of a straight down cut as 'tny or 'tnaai: and because the two krantzes run straight into the sea, as if they had been cut off with a huge knife, the place was named by the Hottentots 'tnaai 'tnaai, each part having an initial click. [Die res is van Pettman self:] This derivation would appear to be more likely...I can only hesitatingly suggest that the name may be connected with the Hottentot word ǃgao 11na, meaning to cut off’. Pettman 1931 SAPN 26 'The name would seem to be a corruption of the two Hottentot words ǃgao ǀǀna, to cut off or straight down'. Granddaughter of George Rex per Metelerkamp 1963 George Rex of Knysna 64 '...a granddaughter of George Rex...her interest was aroused by hearing her Hottentot servants frequently use two words that sounded unmistakably like Kny-sna plus a click prefixed to each syllable. When questioned, they explained that they were discussing where to go for firewood. ‘And when we say xthuys xna, Missus, it means wood there...' She wrote home immediately to say that she had at last discovered the meaning of the name of her native place'.