narang

English

Alternative forms

• narrangy, nerangy

Etymology

Borrowed from Dharug ngarang (“little, younger”). First attested in 1827.

Adjective

narang

1. (Australian Aboriginal, obsolete) Little; small.
   • 1827, Peter Cunningham, Two Years in New South Wales, 1st edition, volume 2, London: Henry Colburn, New Burlington Street, page 28:

     [T]he natives took it into their heads that this was an essential of governorship, and they could not contain their astonishment on finding, upon inquiry, that the "cobawn (big) gobernor, had not mout so (screwing theirs into the appropriate shape), like the narang (little) gobernor."

   • 1838, A Month in the Bush of Australia, London: J. Cross, 18, Holborn; Simpkin and Marshall, Stationers' Court, page 6:

     The blacks say, however, that there are two deep holes in it a "cabonn" (large and deep) and a "narang" (small).

   • 1861, The Burke and Wells Exploring Expedition, Melbourne: Wilson and Mackinnon, 78, Collins Street East, page 8:

     Sandy said he could only understand "narrangy word" they said; but I believe that he could not understand them at all, as he was quite unable to make them comprehend that I wished to know if they had seen any stray camels about the creek.

See also

• cabonn (“big”)

References

• “narang, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Bonan

Alternative forms

• narong (Gansu)

Etymology

From Proto-Mongolic *naran, compare Mongolian нар (nar) and Dongxiang naran.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /naˈraŋ/

Noun

narang

1. sun

   Coordinate term: sara (“moon”)

Further reading

• Nugteren, Hans (2011) Mongolic phonology and the Qinghai-Gansu languages (dissertation)‎^[1], Utrecht: LOT, page 452