English

Alternative forms

• nara, 'naras, narra

Noun

naras

1. (South Africa) A spiny shrub, Acanthosicyos horridus, growing in Namibia and the Kalahari Desert, or the melon-like fruit that it produces. [from 19th c.]
   • 1840, Barnabas Shaw, Memorials of South Africa, p. 185:

     The Bay people catch and eat fish after the ‘naras is out of season, and the carcases of whales killed by the crews of whaling ships, afford them savoury repasts […].

   • 1951, Austin Roberts, The Mammals of South Africa, p. xxix:

     in this river course also grows a remarkable plant, the Naras, which sends its roots deep […].