Etymology

semiarid

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Today it means: Somewhat arid, receiving little rainfall but more than an arid area would, typically defined as 25 to 50 cm of rainfall annually. Full definition →

English arid ← Latin āridus ← French aride
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*sem-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*sēmi
  3. Latinsēmi-
  4. Englishsemi-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*h₂eHs-
  6. Proto-Indo-European*h₂eHs-eh₁yeti
  7. Proto-Italic*āzēō
  8. Latināreō
  9. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-
  10. Latināridu
  11. Frencharide
  12. Latināridus
  13. Englisharid
  14. English todaysemiarid

From semi- + arid.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.