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arenaceous
Dec. 1st, 2025 07:29 amarenaceous (ar-uh-NAY-shuhs) - adj., made of or resembling sand, sandy; (bot.) growing in sandy soil; (geol.) (of sedimentary rocks) having grains the size of sand.
The soils hereabouts are largely arenaceous -- and indeed, describing soil is the main use of that first sense, but it is also used more generically. English took on the word in the 1640s, during that period of great Latinization, from Latin arēnāceus, from arēna/harēna, sand, apparently from an Etruscan source -- which word also gave us arena, because combat arenas were indeed specifically sandy (points at every gladiator movie ever).
---L.
The soils hereabouts are largely arenaceous -- and indeed, describing soil is the main use of that first sense, but it is also used more generically. English took on the word in the 1640s, during that period of great Latinization, from Latin arēnāceus, from arēna/harēna, sand, apparently from an Etruscan source -- which word also gave us arena, because combat arenas were indeed specifically sandy (points at every gladiator movie ever).
---L.
