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jornada

/hɔrˈnɑdə/
IPA guide

Other forms: jornadas

A jornada is a full day's journey across a difficult, waterless stretch of desert, particularly in the American Southwest.

The word is derived from the Spanish word for "day," and in Spanish, jornada describes a standard workday or the distance a traveler can cover in a single day. In American Southwest history, it became synonymous with dangerous, waterless stretches of trail, such as New Mexico's infamous 100-mile-long Jornada del Muerto ("Journey of the Dead Man"), which has no water sources along the way. More generally, a jornada was the distance a traveler could cover between water holes; if a jornada was too long, people or animals could perish.

Definitions of jornada
  1. noun
    (American Southwest) a day of travel across a stretch of desert where there are no sources of water along the way
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