| 释义 |
playa orig. U.S.|ˈplaɪə|
[a. Sp. playa shore, beach, coast, f. late L. plagia: cf. plage1.]
1. a. A flat silt- or sand-covered area, free of vegetation and usu. salty, that lies at the bottom of a desert basin and after rain becomes a temporary lake (playa lake). b. A playa lake.
1854J. R. Bartlett Pers. Narr. Explorations I. 246 The playas..seemed to have an extent of twenty-five or thirty miles. 1856in Publ. S. Calif. Hist. Soc. (1928) XIV. 124 We..stopped 1½ hours at the wagon & took breakfast & then pushed on to the playa & went ahead to hunt for water. 1885I. C. Russell in Monogr. U.S. Geol. Survey XI. 10 Other lakes, which indicate still more pointedly the contrast between an arid and a humid climate, we may call playa lakes. These are sheets of shallow water, covering many square miles in winter season, but evaporating to dryness during the summer, their beds becoming hard, smooth mud-plains or playas. 1939P. G. Worcester Textbk. Geomorphol. ix. 246 Ancient playas which have not been covered with water for many years are likely to have quite irregular surfaces. Ibid. 247 Two types of sloping plains usually connect the borders of desert basins with the flat central playa plains. These are bajadas and pediments. 1945J. L. Marshall Santa Fe 188 In the playas—saucerlike depressions in the desert—were beds of glistening salt and gypsum. 1957G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. i. 6 The lakes of southern Oregon and northern California already mentioned are shallow playas. 1969Twidale & Foale Landforms Illustrated xvi. 110/1 Salts crystallise out and form a distinct layer covering the bed of the playa, which is called a saltpan... All the large playas of South and Western Australia are salty. 1975McAlester & Hay Physical Geol. x. 330 In arid regions..intermittent playa lakes are formed by infrequent downpours and quickly dry up, leaving an accumulation of evaporites.
2. A beach.
[1855in Publ. S. Calif. Hist. Soc. (1934) XVI. 59 La Playa (the beach) is that part of the city nearest the mouth of the harbor.] 1856‘J. Phoenix’ Phoenixiana 202 Three other small buildings,..a fence, and a grave-yard, constitute all the ‘improvements’ that have been made at the ‘Playa’. 1857in Amer. Speech (1941) XVI. 265 The following is a list of words and phrases frequently used in English conversation in California, and not unfrequently quoted in California newspapers:..Playa, beach. 1924Chambers's Jrnl. Aug. 581/1 They turned eastward..keeping to the playas, or little beaches. 1934R. Macaulay Going Abroad i. 14, I think I shall go down to the playa and bathe. 1964S. Blanc Yellow Villa (1965) 12 The South Seas setting that has made land along the northern playa so very expensive. 1966M. Steen Looking Glass viii. 160 Little lights of fishing boats far away down on the playa [in Málaga].
3. (See quot. 1972.)
1898R. T. Hill Cuba & Porto Rico v. 48 Occasionally a few acres of playa, or low alluvial land, may be found around the harbors, but the rivers are free from wide bottoms, and the land as a whole stands well above the sea. 1972Gloss. Geol. (Amer. Geol. Inst.) 548/1 Playa, a flat, alluvial coastland, as distinguished from a beach. |