Word Origins

 

*ARENA

Thanks to the fact that the citizens of ancient Rome liked to see gory contests—gladiators combating one another to the death, or starved wild animals turned loose upon human victims—the ground of the amphitheaters was always liberally covered with sand to soak up spilled blood. And the Latin word for sand is arena. An “arena” today merely denotes a scene of physical, mental, or even figurative contest.

*Inspired by Charles Funk (1881–1957)