badlands
/ˈbæd.lændz/ noun, proper noun
Forms badland Bad Lands
- noun (geomorphology) An arid terrain characterized by severe erosion of sedimentary rocks.
- noun (Alberta, Saskatchewan) An arid region of Western Canada characterized by significant erosion and odd land formations containing dinosaur and other fossils.
- proper noun Badlands National Park, a national park in South Dakota.
Synonyms
Etymology
From earlier Bad Lands, calque of Canadian French mauvaises terres à traverser (“bad lands to cross”), itself a calque of Lakota Makȟóšiča (from makȟá (“land”) + o- (attributive prefix) + šíča (“bad”)).
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “badlands”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details