Re: Interesting Words

Oops, forgot to define my footnote...  (for the record, I've never delurked on
*any* mailing list/newsgroup without messing up my first message.  Ever.)

On Tue, 06 Nov 2001 14:47:44 -0500, CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU scribbled
(metaphorically speaking, of course):

> Delurking briefly to say some stuff about dirt...
>
>  On Tue, 6 Nov 2001 10:17:26 -0500, Muke Tever scribbled (metaphorically
>  speaking, of course):
>
>  >  > Clay isn't mud either.
>  >
>  >  Bah!   IMHO 'clay' and 'mud' are positiver and negativer labels for the same
>  >  thing (although mud may be more liquid, and clay more solid)
>
>  This sort of thing depends mostly on your definition of "dirt."  If "dirt" ==
>  "soil", then clay (and in fact sand, as well as silt) is dirt.       Or, more
>  precisely, a component of dirt.  As I recall, soils are very infrequently
>  purely clay, or purely sand, or purely silt.  Usually they're a combination of
>  all three, leading to lovely triangle diagrams naming the various types of soil
>  (leading to such distinct terms as "loamy sand" and "sandy loam")[1].
>
>  On the other hand, if "dirt" != "soil", then it's mostly a personal thing, I
>  think.
>
>  Zach Bean
>
>  Relurking...
[1]  A quick google search for "soil triangle" found one of those diagrams at
http://koning.ecsu.ctstateu.edu/Plants_Human/soiltriangle.gif

Zach Bean