A South American hardwood tree with extremely dense, heavy wood used for construction and tool handles.
From Spanish calden, likely borrowed from Mapuche or other indigenous South American languages. The word entered European languages through colonial contact and refers to the tree Prosopis caldenia found in Argentina and Chile.
The calden tree is so incredibly hard and dense that it won't float in water—it sinks! This property made it invaluable to indigenous peoples and later colonial builders who could create tools and structures that lasted centuries in harsh climates.
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