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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--adobe This week's theme: words borrowed from other languages. adobe (uh-DO-bee) 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.] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus. -Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org) "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. X-Bonus All ideas are already in the brain, just as all statues are in the marble. -Carlo Dossi, author and diplomat (1849-1910)

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