different between prairie vs brushfire

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French prairie.

Pronunciation

• (Mary–marry–merry distinction) IPA^(key): /?p????i/
• (Mary–marry–merry merger) IPA^(key): [?p???i]
• Rhymes: -???i

Noun

prairie (plural prairies)

1. An extensive area of relatively flat grassland with few, if any, trees, especially in North America.

Derived terms

Related terms

• Prairial
• prairillon

Translations

Coordinate terms

• pampa
• savanna
• steppe

Further reading

• prairie on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English prairie, from French prairie, from Middle French [Term?], from Old French praerie, from Latin pratum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pr??.ri/, /?pr?.ri/
• Hyphenation: prai?rie

Noun

prairie f (plural prairies)

1. prairie [from ca. 1830s]
   • 1831, James Fenimore Cooper, De prairie, of Grazige woestijn van Noord-Amerika, vol. 1, tr. from English, A. & J. Honkoop (publ.), page 339.

Derived terms

• prairiegras
• prairiehond
• prairie-indiaan
• prairiepaard
• prairiewolf

Related terms

• prairial
• prieel

French

Etymology

From Old French praerie, from Latin pratum (“meadow”) + -aria, -arium. See also pré and -erie. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??.?i/

Noun

prairie f (plural prairies)

1. meadow, grassland, pasture, prairie

Derived terms

• chien de prairie

Further reading

• “prairie” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• périrai, prierai, riperai

English

Etymology

brush +? fire

Noun

brushfire (plural brushfires)

1. A large fire in a scrubland or prairie, as opposed to a forest fire, which happens in forests.
2. (politics, attributive) A war that does not directly involve the world's superpowers.
   • 1958, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means. Subcommittee on Foreign Trade Policy, Foreign Trade Policy: Hearings, Eighty-fifth Congress (page 651)

     It may be a brushfire operation or an operation on the scale of the Korean war; it will certainly not involve the home territories of the United States and Soviet Russia as theaters of hostilities.

   • 1959, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations, Financial statements of field commanders (page 251)

     I grant you it may not be in the actual application of mechanical devices, but if you have the volume to have supremacy in a major war it is obvious you would have the volume to take care of a brushfire war.

   • 1963, Philip Van Slyck, Peace: the Control of National Power (page 14)

     If a brushfire conflict does threaten superpower interests, or the general peace, a superpower may intervene in an unusual way.

Alternative forms

• brush fire
• brush-fire

Anagrams

• furbisher, refurbish