clayey

Meaning

Adjective

• Composed of clay or containing (much) clay; clayish.
• Covered or dirtied with clay.
• Resembling clay; claylike, clayish.
• Of the human body, as contrasted with the soul; bodily, human, mortal.

Origin

• From Middle English cleii, cleyye, either:
• ; clei, cley is derived from Old English clǣġ, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gleh₁y-, *gley-; or
• from Old English clǣig, from clǣġ (see above) + -iġ.
• The English word is equivalent to clay + -y, with the -e- included to avoid the occurrence of -yy.
• Sense 4 (“of the human body, as contrasted with the soul”) may allude to the biblical account of God creating man from earth; see Genesis 2:7 (King James Version; spelling modernized): “And the God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”