Savannas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Large grassland ecosystems characterized by scattered trees and moderate rainfall are often referred to as these areas
2. These regions, typically found in tropical and subtropical climates, feature grasslands interspersed with trees
3. Distinctive landscapes marked by open grasslands and occasional trees, often home to diverse wildlife, define these ecosystems

Etymology: "Savannas" is the plural of "savanna," and the singular has an interesting route into English. It comes from Spanish "sabana," which was borrowed from Taíno, the Arawakan language of the Caribbean peoples whom Spanish colonists encountered in the Greater Antilles. Spanish speakers used the word for the open, treeless grassland they found there, and it carried that sense of a flat expanse of grass across the Atlantic. The Taíno origin is the surprising part, since the word is now associated with the broad tropical grasslands of Africa and South America rather than the Caribbean. English speakers took it from Spanish, so the word arrived with the Spanish colonial vocabulary of the Americas and was later applied to similar landscapes elsewhere in the world.

Synonyms: grasslands, prairies

Antonyms: forests, jungles