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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for June 2, 1999
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jungle [n. JUNG-gul]
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A jungle is an area of land that is densely overgrown with tropical
vegetation. More metaphorically, a jungle can also be something that
is confusing or densely tangled, as in this example: "After three
hours of study, Stew became frustrated by the dense jungle of tax
rules."
Although today we usually think of jungles as moist places, the
original jungles were dry. The oldest known root is Sanskrit jangalam
(a dry wasteland, or any kind of uncultivated area). In Hindi, a
jangal was still an area of wasteland, but with the additional sense
of being overgrown with scrub. When the word moved into Anglo-Indian,
it changed to almost its present meaning, referring to an area of
dense forest.
Since entering English, the word has developed many new variants. Now
there are concrete jungles (big cities), blackboard jungles (public
schools), corporate jungles (big companies), and of course the
globe-spanning digital jungle (the Internet).
The nearly pristine jungles of Borneo still offer adventure and
danger:
http://savvytraveler.com/Show/Features/10-24-98/borneo.html
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