Bonsella

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    In a transaction, something extra on the side. South-Africa

    "A lekker dictionary containing all the bakgat South African words has hit the bookstores. The collection of about 1,500 local words is a bonsella published in the latest edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, "the ultimate authority on South African English"."

  2. 2
    A tip or gratuity. South-Africa
  3. 3
    A handout. South-Africa
  4. 4
    A bribe. South-Africa

Synonyms

All synonyms
handout

Example

More examples

"A lekker dictionary containing all the bakgat South African words has hit the bookstores. The collection of about 1,500 local words is a bonsella published in the latest edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, "the ultimate authority on South African English"."

Etymology

Borrowed from Afrikaans bonsela, from Xhosa bansela meaning "showing thanks with a gift", related to Zulu umbhanselo a "tip".

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.