I want to start a new series called Every Day is a Learning Day, based on a quote from Doctor Who. It’s a saying that my family and I have adopted, because we all love learning new things. Ideally this would be a daily series, with new content every single day. But I know that that is not sustainable for me right now, so I’ll just post when something interesting comes up and I happen to remember that I’ve started this series.

So.

Today’s inaugural Learning Day tidbit is this:

The origin of the word “tarmac”: It’s short for “tarmacadam“, meaning tar + macadam. Tar is the black goo, and macadam is the crushed stone and such that the black goo mixes with to form a resilient and smooth surface. Click through to learn the origins of the word “macadam”, and be chagrined, as I was, that is isn’t short for crushed macadamia nuts or anything.

Since Wikipedia does a better job explaining than I would, I won’t explain it all here. Hopefully future posts in this series will be more detailed, but I only had enough oomph to do this short post.

“Asphalt concrete” is another substance that might be interesting to read up on. I haven’t learned enough to knowledgeably explain the differences between tarmac and asphalt, but this Irish company has a pretty good page.