Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(S.Afr.) used orig. in army to indicate one has gone mad through exposure to tropical heat and life in the bush, lit. ‘bush-fucked’.

1979		informant in DSAE (1996) 101/3: Here’s Richard, this bossies ou I was telling you about — thinks he’s still in the army.
1981		P. Wilhelm At the End of a War 14: Ja man, he’s bosbefok.
1985		Frontline Aug. 54: I don’t know about these guys who are meant to go bossies after service. I don’t know anyone who is really gone in his head because of contacts [...] Of course, guys who spend long enough living in the bush end up bedonderd, but that’s just normal army befok, it’s not bossies like from war [DSAE].
1993		A. Fugard Playland 9: I’m not bosbefok or anything like that. The doctors have given me some pills for my nerves and to help me sleep, but otherwise I’m okay.
2003		G.V. Davis Voices of Justice and Reason 330: [...] contending that when her brother went bosbefok, ‘I saved his life’.
2005		C. Holt At Thy Call We Did Not Falter 150: The guys who did show their emotions were labelled bossies (bush mad), and although in most cases the army just turned a blind eye.
2011		J. Strauss Dubious Salvation of Jack V. 91: ‘Ag, you must understand, he's a little bosbefok’ — bushfucked — ‘he needs some time to settle down’.