Editing Prairie (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:United States Prairies.svg|right|thumb|Approximate regional types of prairie in the United States
{{legend|#00FF00|[[Shortgrass prairie]]}}
{{legend|#00C000|[[Mixed grass prairie]]}}
{{legend|#008000|[[Tallgrass prairie]]}}]]
According to [[Theodore Roosevelt]]:{{cquote|We have taken into our language the word ''prairie'', because when our backwoodsmen first reached the land [in the [[Midwest]]] and saw the great natural [[meadow]]s of [[tall grass prairie|long grass]]—sights unknown to the gloomy forests wherein they had always dwelt—they knew not what to call them, and borrowed the term already in use among the French inhabitants.<ref name = "west 1 p34">{{cite book |last= Roosevelt |first= Theodore |year= 1889 |title= The Winning of the West: Volume I |location= New York and London |publisher= G.&nbsp;P.&nbsp;Putnam's Sons |page= [https://archive.org/stream/winningwest16roosgoog#page/n60/mode/2up 34] }}</ref>}} ''Prairie'' ({{IPA|fr|pʁɛʁi|pron}}) is the [[French language|French]] word for "meadow", formed ultimately from the [[Latin]] root word ''pratum'' (which has the same meaning).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/prairie|title=Etymologie de prairie|date=2012|website=Centre Nationale de Ressources de Textuelles et Lexicalles|lang=fr|access-date=18 November 2022}}</ref>