"By Monday night I got it clearly in my head I must be tabooed."
<hw>Tara</hw>, <i>n</i>. (1) Maori name for the birds <i>Sterna caspia</i>, Pallas, and <i>S. frontalis</i>, Gray, the Sea-Swallow, or <i>Tern</i> (q.v.).
(2) A Tasmanian aboriginal name for the fern <i>Pteris aquilina</i>, L., <i>N.O. Polypodeae</i>.
1834. Ross, `Van Diemen's Land Annual,' p. 129:
"The most extensively diffused eatable roots of Van Diemen's Land are those of the tara fern . . . greatly resembles <i>Pteris aquilina</i>, the common fern, brake, breckon, or brackin, of England . . . it is known among the aborigines by the name of tara . . . the root of the tara fern possesses much nutritive matter."
<hw>Taraire</hw>, <i>n</i>. Maori name for a New Zealand tree; formerly <i>Nesodaphne tarairi</i>, Hook., now <i>Beilschmiedia tarairi</i>, Benth. and Hook., <i>N.O. Laurineae</i>.
1873. `Catalogue of Vienna Exhibition':
"Tarairi. Used for most of the purposes for which sycamore is applied in Europe."
1883. J. Hector, `Handbook of New Zealand,' p. 129:
"Tarairi. A lofty forest tree, sixty to eighty feet high, with stout branches. Wood white, splits freely, but not much valued."