ADOBE (pronounced a-db-be; also corrupted to dobie; from the Span. adobar, to

See also:

• PLASTER

plaster, traceable through Arabic to an

See also:

• EGYPTIAN

Egyptian hieroglyph meaning "

See also:

• BRICK (derived according to some etymologists from the Teutonic bricke, a disk or plate; but more authoritatively, through the French brique, originally a " broken piece," applied especially to bread, and so to clay, from the Teutonic brikan, to break)

brick ")  , a Spanish-American word for the sun-dried clay used by the Indians for building in some of the south-western states of the American Union, this method having been imported in the 16th century by Spaniards from Mexico, Peru, &c . A distinction is made between the smaller " adobes," which are about the size of ordinary baked bricks, and the larger " adobines, " some of which are as much as from one to two yards long .