means the fine, loose granular material formed from the erosion of rock and shells, found on beaches, in deserts, and at the bottom of rivers and seas.

from From Old English 'sand,' a thoroughly Germanic word with siblings across the family — Dutch 'zand,' German 'Sand,' Old Norse 'sandr.' These all trace back to a Proto-Germanic root, and likely beyond it to a Proto-Indo-European source possibly related to Greek 'ammos' and Latin 'sabulum' (the ancestor of words like 'sable' meaning coarse sand). The word has stayed remarkably unchanged for over a thousand years — fitting, perhaps, for something that outlasts the mountains it came from.