Page "Adobe" Paragraph 5

The word adobe has existed for around 4, 000 years, with relatively little change in either pronunciation or meaning.

The word can be traced from the Middle Egyptian ( c. 2000 BC ) word dj-b-t " mud sun-dried brick.

" As Middle Egyptian evolved into Late Egyptian, Demotic, and finally Coptic ( c. 600 BC ), dj-b-t became tobe " brick.

" This was borrowed into Arabic as al-tub ( الط ّ وب al " the " + tub " brick ") " brick ," which was assimilated into Old Spanish as adobe, still with the meaning " mud brick.

" English borrowed the word from Spanish in the early 18th century.