adobe

Etymology

From Spanish adobe, from Arabic اَلطُّوب (aṭ-ṭūb), from Sahidic Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe, “brick”), from Demotic ⁠⁠ (tb, “brick”), from Egyptian Db-b-t:O39 (ḏbt, “brick, block, ingot”).

noun

1. An unburnt brick dried in the sun.
   Many people in Texas and New Mexico live in adobe houses.
   “Find me a nice, clean adobe wall,” says he, “and send Senor Rompiro up against it.” 1903, O’Henry, Roads of Destiny
   The Jawas mutter gibberish as they busily line up their battered captives, including Artoo and Threepio, in front of the enormous Sandcrawler, which is parked beside a small homestead consisting of three large holes in the ground surrounded by several tall moisture vaporators and one small adobe block house. 1977, George Lucas, Star Wars (script)
   26 May 2003, Roger Angell, in The New Yorker, The Sangre de Cristos came into view and the first soft-cornered adobe houses, and that night we ate at La Fonda with my Aunt Elsie, who worked for the Indian Bureau, and had Hopi snake dances and San Ildefonso pottery-makers and Mabel Dodge Luhan in store for us in the coming weeks.
2. The earth from which such bricks are made.
3. A house made of adobe brick.
   The snow-dusted mesas and million-dollar adobes look enchanting as ever[…]. March 11 2007, Ralph Blumenthal, “Prosecutor’s Ouster Shifts Political Order”, in New York Times