alerce

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a very large, long-lived evergreen tree of southern Chile and Argentina, Fitzroya cupressoides, valued for its durable reddish wood

   Ancient alerce trees rose above the temperate rainforest of southern Chile.

2. 2
   noun

   the wood of the North African sandarac tree

   The cabinetmaker identified the old panel as alerce from a sandarac tree.

Borrowed from Spanish alerce, 'larch,' from Arabic al-arz, 'cedar or larch,' with influence from Latin larix, 'larch.' In South America the name was transferred to the unrelated Patagonian cypress and its valuable timber.

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