okra
(ˈɒkrə)
Also 8 ocra, 8–9 ocro, ockro, ochre, okro, 9 ochro, ochra, (occro, occra, okero, ookroo, ? okree).
[app. West African: Christaller, Dict. Asante & Fanti (1881), has nkru-ma ‘an annual plant, and its green seed-pods, used for soup, salad, pickles; okra, ochra, okro, Hibiscus esculentus’; where -ma is a formative suffix of nouns, the root-word being nkru: cf. nkran, the name of the town Europeanized as Accra. (J. Platt in Athenæum 1 Sept. 1900.)]
A tall malvaceous plant, Hibiscus or Abelmoschus esculentus, indigenous to Africa, now cultivated in the East and West Indies and the southern United States; the young mucilaginous capsules or ‘pods’ are used as an esculent vegetable and for thickening soup; the stem furnishes a fibre suitable for ropes. Also a name for the pods. (Also called gumbo.)
| 1707 Sloane Jamaica I. 222 Ocra, this has a round green stem, which rises straight up to ten or twelve foot high. 1713 J. Petiver in Phil. Trans. XXVIII. 211 Winged Birds Pease or Ochre. 1750 G. Hughes Barbadoes 207 The flower is succeeded by a multangular fleshy pod, every way resembling that of an Ockro. 1777 G. Forster Voy. round World II. 321 The contents were the leaves of the okra (hibiscus esculentus). 1834 M. G. Lewis Jrnl. W. Ind. 152 The only native vegetable, which I like much, is the ochra, which tastes like asparagus. 1858 Clarke in Moloney W. Afr. Fisheries (1883) 37 (Fish. Exh. Publ.) This stew is made piquant and wholesome by the addition of salt, bitter tomatoes or ocroes, shallots,..and abundance of red peppers. 1873 Gardner Hist. Jamaica 391 A quart of ockroes. 1894 A. Spinner Study Colour 45 To help her mother gather the green okras for the soup. 1923 H. C. Thompson Vegetable Crops xxvii. 454 Okra is a tender plant and grows best in hot weather. 1953 G. Lamming In Castle of my Skin xiv. 274 Slicing the ochroes was..painstaking. The prickly surface irritated the skin, and the slices fell off on the hand in a slimy mess. 1963 J. Kirkup Tropic Temper 49 The chicken curry..is particularly good, with its rich, really hot sauce containing a curious, ribbed, tasteless vegetable called okras. 1964 E. Huxley Back Street New Worlds xiv. 141 The Shepherd's Bush market has a shop devoted wholly to West African foods..like gbure and okra, tete and apan. 1967 Guardian 8 Dec. 6/4 Fresh bhindi (which some people know as ladies' fingers, others as okra). 1971 Advocate-News (Barbados) 17 Sept. (Guyana Suppl.) p. ii/2 Now the Liliputians have completed planting of ground provisions, pumpkins, ochroes, blackeye peas, celery, bora and such permanent crops as breadfruit, citrus and breadnut. 1972 Y. Lovelock Vegetable Bk. 147 Perhaps the best known member [of the hibiscus family] is okra.., of African origin and said to have been cultivated in ancient Egypt. It is now grown widely in Africa, the Mediterranean region and the Americas. |
b. Applied, with defining words, to other species of Hibiscus or Abelmoschus.
| 1840 Penny Cycl. XVI. 395/2 The okro..is very closely allied to H. Abelmoschus, now Abelmoschus moschatus,..by Browne, in his ‘Nat. Hist. of Jamaica’, called Musk-okro. |
c. attrib. and Comb.
| 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 285 The Okro Plant. The pods of this plant are full of a nutritive mucilage, and the principal ingredient in most of the soops and pepper-pots, made in America. 1833 Marryat P. Simple (1863) 263 The negroes here get so tired of salt fish and occra broth, that they eat dirt by way of a relish. 1878 N. A. Donnelley Lakeside Cook Bk. 4/2 (recipe) Okra Gumbo. 1949 Caribbean Q. I. i. 33 The little yellow cups of witchery known as Okra flowers. 1952 S. Selvon Brighter Sun v. 82 Neighbour ask me bringam dry ochro seed for she to plant. 1973 News & Courier (Charleston, S. Carolina) 4 Nov. 3-E/1 A lunch of sandwiches and okra soup will be served from noon to 1 p.m. |