term to be abandoned altogether. At least a few researchers specializing in regolith development, including T. R. Paton and M. A. J. Williams, have suggested that hopeless confusion has evolved around the name.

Historically, laterite was cut into brick-like shapes and used in monument-building. After 1000 AD, construction at Angkor Wat and other southeast Asian sites changed to rectangular temple enclosures made of laterite, brick, and stone. Since the mid-1970s, some