A reddish-brown antelope found in South Africa, related to the hartebeest with curved horns and a stocky build.
From Khoi language of southern Africa; the word was adopted into English through contact with indigenous peoples. The root likely refers to the animal's distinctive coloring or behavior.
The caama is basically Africa's answer to speed and agility—it was so prized by early European colonists that detailed drawings of it appear in some of the first natural history documents of the Cape. Its name preserves one of the few Khoi words that made it into English, giving us a linguistic window into extinct indigenous languages.
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