Roof, noun1

Origin:
EnglishShow more By analogy with general English roof of the world the Himalayas.
In the phrases Roof of Africa, Roof of South Africa.
A name given to the highest southern African mountains, the Qathlamba of Lesotho and the Drakensberg of western KwaZulu-Natal; transferred sense, the Kingdom of Lesotho.
1912 Cape Times 28 Sept. 9 (Pettman)The Drakensberg range has been aptly called the Roof of Africa.
1948 E. Rosenthal Afr. Switzerland 27Not until 1935 were the first tentative beginnings made at combating the washing-away of the soil in the sudden violent storms of the ‘Roof of South Africa’.
1989 J. Hobbs Thoughts in Makeshift Mortuary 360‘If we go to Lesotho, maybe we can live in the mountains,’ Rose said. ‘They call it the Roof of Africa, don’t they?’
A name given to the highest southern African mountains, the Qathlamba of Lesotho and the Drakensberg of western KwaZulu-Natal; transferred sense, the Kingdom of Lesotho.
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19121989