LĂTER πλίνθος, a brick. The Romans distinguished between those bricks
which were merely dried by the sun and air (_lateres crudi_), and
those which were burnt in the kiln (_cocti_ or _coctiles_). They
preferred for brick making clay which was either whitish or decidedly
red. Pliny calls the brickfield _lateraria_, and to make bricks
_lateres ducere_, corresponding to the Greek πλίνθους ἕλκειν or
ἔρυειν.