Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A dark soil that develops under grass on limestone and chalk.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
dark soil that sometimesdevelops undergrass onlimestone andchalk .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Polish rędzina, of unknown origin.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Polish rędzina.
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Examples
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There is little surface running water within the reserve as it usually filters fairly rapidly through the shallow rendzina and 'saskab' (granular whitish and brittle limestone) soils, and the limestone rock to subterranean channels.
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Most of the higher mountain areas are composed of limestone and gypsum, covered with free-draining thin rendzina lithosols that retain little moisture outside the rainy seasons.
ruzuzu commented on the word rendzina
"This is one of the most interesting of the soil names; it originates from a Polish colloquial word "rzędzić", which means "to chat": the soil of this type contains a significant amount of gravel and stones, which, during plowing, produce various sound effects (clicking, screeching, etc.), i.e., "talk" to the ploughman."
--http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rendzina&oldid=474517689
May 25, 2012