Από το βιβλίο Pascali’s Island (το ’χω δει, αλλά δεν θυμάμαι πολλά)
“Terra rossa? Read earth... Sounds like a name on some primitive kind of map. You know, like terra incognita or terra periculosa. One of those maps the old explorers made.”
I should probably never have found out what terra rossa is. It is a type of bauxite, Excellency.
...terra rossa. There are bauxite deposits up there in the hills, Excellency...
Από το Oxford English Dictionary:
terra rossa: [a. It., = red earth.]
A reddish soil occurring on limestone in Mediterranean climates (see also quot. 1938).
1882 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. 458 Fuchs believes that the ‘terra rossa’ is only present in dry climates where the amount of humus is small. 1938 U.S. Dept. Agric. Yearbk. 991 Many writers have preferred to limit Terra Rossa to soils developed on limestones, while some would have it include any red soil in a Mediterranean climate... At present its only distinction lies in its color. 1956 Proc. Prehist. Soc. XXI. 53 Most brown-earths are characteristic of deciduous forests, chernozems of steppe, and terra rossas of Mediterranean forests on limestone. 1975 Nature 14 Aug. 566/1 Further evidence for the role of climate is provided by the fact that the limestone soils from Apulia, the Orbetello region and the southern Apennines, which are mainly of the red Mediterranean type (that is, terra rossa) exhibit higher percentage conversions than those from the Central Apennines which are mainly rendzinas.
Από τον Πάπυρο κ.λπ.:
τέρρα ρόσσα ή ερυθρά γη ή κοκκινόχωμα (terra rossa) (Πετρογρ.) ερυθρά άργιλος που απαντά συνήθως σε μεσογειακά κλίματα και είναι πλούσια σε λεπτόκοκκη χαλαζιακή άμμο, καθώς και σε οξείδια και υδροξείδια του σιδήρου και του μαγγανίου στα οποία οφείλει το χαρακτηριστικό χρώμα της.
Εξαρτάται λοιπόν από τη ροή της ιστορίας πότε θα το αποδώσεις σαν "τέρρα ρόσσα", πότε σαν "ερυθρά γη" και πότε σαν "κοκκινόχωμα".