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prettygoodwordSo back to Australia for another round of words from down under -- though this one is rather more complicated than I'd been given to understand:
spinifex (SPAI-nuh-feks) - n., any of various hummock-forming Australian bunchgrasses (chiefly genus Triodia) growing in arid regions, with awl-shaped, pointed leaves and spiny seeds; any of a few species of coastal dunegrasses (genus Spinifex) of Africa, Middle East, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Two unrelated groups, one primarily Australia-only, the other more widespread -- both spiny, or at least poke-y. As one would hope with a name like that: Coined in 1846 from Latin roots spīna, thorn + Latin -fex, combining form of facere, to make. These are two different species of the bunchgrass:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
spinifex (SPAI-nuh-feks) - n., any of various hummock-forming Australian bunchgrasses (chiefly genus Triodia) growing in arid regions, with awl-shaped, pointed leaves and spiny seeds; any of a few species of coastal dunegrasses (genus Spinifex) of Africa, Middle East, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Two unrelated groups, one primarily Australia-only, the other more widespread -- both spiny, or at least poke-y. As one would hope with a name like that: Coined in 1846 from Latin roots spīna, thorn + Latin -fex, combining form of facere, to make. These are two different species of the bunchgrass:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
