Spodosol

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A mineral soil type found mainly in cool humid forests, with a pale leached upper layer above a darker layer rich in accumulated organic matter and iron or aluminum
2. A forest soil whose surface horizon has been stripped of nutrients by leaching, leaving a bleached layer over a dark accumulation zone beneath it
3. Name for a acidic, ash-colored soil order that develops under coniferous or cool temperate vegetation through the downward movement of humus and metal compounds

Etymology: Spodosol is a soil type, and its name grew out of a neighbour it resembles. The first half comes from Ancient Greek "spodos," meaning wood-ashes, a reference to the pale, ash-like layer that characterises these soils. The second half, "-sol," is a clipped form of the Latin "solum," meaning soil or ground. The name was shaped to echo "podsol," an older term for a similar soil type, which is the more striking part of the story. Spodosol is not related to podsol by descent; the resemblance in sound was deliberately exploited, a process linguists call phono-semantic matching, so that the new name would sound familiar to those who already knew the older term.