Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskietfontein
is a farm in the North West province of South Africa that is noted for its unusually long place name of 44 characters—the longest in South Africa and possibly fourth-longest in the world. Located in the Ditsobotla Local Municipality of the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality, some east of the town of Lichtenburg and west of Pretoria, the name in Afrikaans means "the spring where two buffaloes were shot stone-dead with one shot". Originally granted to A.P. de Nysschen on 24 April 1866 by the government of the South African Republic, is also sometimes known by the shortenings Twee buffels and Twee Buffels Geskiet.
Name
The name in Afrikaans means "the spring where two buffaloes were shot stone-dead with one shot". 44 characters long, it is the longest place name in South Africa and possibly fourth-longest in the world. The literal translation is "Twee buffels" = "Two buffaloes", "met een skoot" = "with one shot"; "morsdood" = "stone dead"; "geskiet" = "shot"; "fontein" = "spring " or "fountain". For brevity, it is sometimes known by the shortenings Twee buffels and Twee Buffels Geschiet.The name follows a common format for Afrikaans-language place names in South Africa, and illustrates the compounding nature of Germanic languages including Afrikaans, itself derived from Dutch. All the descriptive terms relating to one concept can generally be tied together into one long word. Another example of this would be onderwysleierskapontwikkelingsprojek, which means "education leadership development project." Such use is, however, not common, and such words are often separated using one or more hyphens if they become too long or unwieldy.