Today's Word

Yesterday's Word

Archives

FAQ

Dec 25, 2007

This week's theme
Words borrowed from other languages

This week's words
lahar
adobe
catamaran
moniker
kahuna

Daily word @ your site
Add the daily word to your web page. It is free.

---

adobe

noun:
1. An unburned, sun-dried brick made of clay and straw.
2. Silt or clay deposited by rivers, from which such bricks are made.
3. A building made of such material.

[Via Spanish and Arabic from Coptic tobe (brick). Coptic is the classical language of Egypt, a form of Egyptian with heavy influence from Greek.]

"When the earthquakes of Sept. 19 and 20 struck, walls collapsed and roofs caved in. Many people were crushed under the thick adobe walls, and survivors have been left to set up makeshift shelters amid the rubble or in the street."
Steve Frazier; Mexican Property Seizures After Quake Infuriate Owners; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Nov 7, 1985.

See more usage examples of adobe in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

X-Bonus