Etymology

terra preta

Today it means: A very dark, man-made, nutritionally dense soil found in the Amazon basin. Full definition →

Portuguese terra preta
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Portuguese · borrowed fromterra preta
  2. English todayterra preta

Borrowed from Portuguese terra preta, from terra (“soil”) + preta (“black”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.