A dry creek bed or gulch in arid regions that fills with water during heavy rains.
Borrowed directly from Spanish arroyo meaning 'stream' or 'brook,' from Latin arrugia. The word entered American English through contact with Spanish-speaking regions of the Southwest, particularly during westward expansion in the 19th century.
Arroyo perfectly captures a geographic feature that doesn't exist in wetter climates - a waterway that's usually dry but can become a raging torrent. The Spanish loanword reflects how American English adopted local terminology as settlers encountered new landscapes.
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