SANDY ARENA

Today, the word arena refers to any venue surrounded by seating for spectators, but when it was first brought into English, it was exclusively used in the context of the central parts of Roman amphitheatres. That definition comes from Latin harena, which originally meant "sand" or "sandy space", since the centers of ancient arenas were commonly filled with sand. That's also the etymon of arenaceous, an adjective used in mostly scientific contexts to refer to things pertaining to sand. Harena of uncertain origin, but has been spelled as hasena, and cognates suggest that it's possibly that it's ultimately from an Etruscan root. It occurred to me that we still use arena as a figurative term for battlefields, such as in the expression arena of war. This most closely relates to the original meaning, which is cool.