GC: n
S: FAO – http://www.fao.org/docrep/t0122e/t0122e03.htm (last access: 7 July 2016); SDir – https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/arid-zones (last access: 6 June 2024).
N: 1. – arid (adj): 1650s, “dry, parched, without moisture,” from French aride “dry” (15c.) or directly from Latin aridus “dry, arid, parched,” from arere “to be dry” (from PIE root *as- “to burn, glow”). The figurative sense of “uninteresting” is from 1827. Related: Aridly; aridness.
– zone (n): late 14c., from Latin zona “geographical belt, celestial zone,” from Greek zōnē “a belt, the girdle worn by women at the hips,” from zōnnynai “to gird,” from PIE root *yos- “to gird” (source also of Avestan yasta- “girt,” Lithuanian juosiu, juosti “to gird,” Old Church Slavonic po-jasu “girdle”). The 10c. Anglo-Saxon treatise on astronomy translates Latin quinque zonas as fyf gyrdlas.
Originally one of the five great divisions of the earth’s surface (torrid, temperate, frigid; separated by tropics of Cancer and Capricorn and Arctic and Antarctic circles); meaning “any discrete region” is first recorded 1822. Zone defense in team sports is recorded from 1927.
2. Arid land is characterized by low annual rainfall of less than 250 mm, by evaporation exceeding precipitation and a sparse vegetation. (Source: GEMET/LBC)
3. In arid regions moisture conditions are inadequate to support abundant vegetative cover of the land surface. As a result, the land is subjected to intense fluvial, eolian, and mass-wasting processes. The importance of fluvial action may seem ironic for an arid region.
S: 1. Etymonline – https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=arid+zone (last access: 6 June 2024). 2. LEAP-UNEP – https://leap.unep.org/en/knowledge/glossary/arid-zone (last access: 6 June 2024). 3. EncBrit – https://www.britannica.com/science/arid-zone (last access: 6 June 2024).
SYN: arid land
S: LEAP-UNEP – https://leap.unep.org/en/knowledge/glossary/arid-zone (last access: 6 June 2024)
CR: desert, desertification, drought, erosion.
