adret

[prettygoodword]

adret (a-DREY) - n., the sunny side of a mountain.


Here in the northern hemisphere, the southern slopes -- that which faces the equator. Usually has a warmer temperatures, longer growing season, and a higher timberline than the ubac, which is the shaded (poleward) side of the mountain. Both of these words are adopted (in the 1930s) from French, which got them in turn from Provençal, specifically eastern Provençal (originally they wereused of mountains in the Alps) -- for the main word, from adreg/adret, literally good/suitable (for vineyards), a direct cognate of adroit, literally on the straight, while ubac is apparently an alteration of Latin opacus, shady (or so says this dictionary -- I'd think umbrous would be a closer fit).

---L.

Comments

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

OED3 (2005) says, in part, "Compare post-classical Latin ubacum (in an undated source in Du Cange), ubagum (1035), Catalan obac (839 as obago, 1371 as ubac), Middle French ubac situated in the shade (1505)." (Works for me.)

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

So a p > b shift? Okay, sure.

---L.