Articles in ‘Etymology of Spanish words’
March 28th, 2009
I love this page Etymologically Speaking…with its curious list origins of English, French, German and Spanish words. Shame he or she hasn’t written any more.
This is what it says about cerveza:
This term, which means “beer” in Spanish, originally came from the medieval French word cervoise. For its part, the French term origianlly stemmed from the Gallo-Roman (that is, ancient French-Latin dialect) word cerevisia, which was used in honor of Ceres, the Roman goddess of the harvest. It is interesting to note that just about the time that the Spanish were adopting the term cerveza (aroung 1482), the French started to drop cervoise in favor of the term biere– from the Germanic term Bier (from the Latin biber, “to drink”), which was the term that was more popular in northern Europe, where the climate was more favorable to the production of the grains that were used to make the beverage. [(A footnote: the reader might be wondering what term was used in Spain before the adoption of cerveza. Before 1482, the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula had used the completely-unrelated ancient Iberian word ceria or celia, meaning "fermented wheat.")(Footnote #2: The English term ale comes from the Scandinavian term for beer, oel. Although oel collectively refers to all types of beer, you beer purists out there know that the English term ale came to refer only to beer produced using the "top" fermentation process. Beer produced using the "bottom" fermentation process is called lager.)].
Etymology of Spanish words, Food and drink, Spanish language | Tags: Ceres, ceria, history of beer in Spai, history of Spanish beer, origen de cerveza, Roman goddess of the harvest|
There are probably thousands of placenames in Spain with an Arabic origin, from large regions and rivers to the smallest of hamlets and streets. Arabic toponyms are common throughout Spain, except for areas that never came under Muslim rule or where this was particularly short-lived (Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque country) and most of Catalonia. Conversely Arabic toponyms are particularly common along the Eastern Coast (Valencia and Murcia) and in Andalusia.
12C Koran used in Al-Andalus (Wikipedia)
This is a first draft. I’ll be adding more names to this.
Geographical features
- Guadiana river. Meaning “River Anae” (from the Latin Fluminus Anae, “River of Ducks”).
- Guadalquivir river. Derived from Arabic wadi a1-kabir – the great river
- Mulhacén. Highest mountain in peninsular Spain. Named after 15th century Sultan of Granada Ali Muley Hacén Abu al-Hasan, though it seems the name is posthumous to 1492.
- Pico Almanzor. Mountain in the Gredos Mountains of Central Spain. Named after “Almanzor” Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir, defacto ruler of Al Andalus in late 10th – early 11th centuries.
- Cape Trafalgar. From Andalusi Arabic Taraf-al-ghar.
- Río Guadix, Spain (The River River River – Río is “river” in Spanish, Guad < wad? is “river” in Arabic and Ix is “river” in Phoenician)
- Albufera : coastal marsh, the most famous of which is L’ Albufera near Valencia. From the Arabic, al-buhayrah, for ‘the lagoon’ or ‘the small sea’.
- Alpujarras (a1-bashurah – the bastion???)
- Guadalviar (wadi al-abyad – white river)
- Gibraltar: from the Arabic name Jabal Tariq, which means mountain of Tariq, or the more obvious Gibr al Tariq, meaning rock of Tariq).
Towns, cities and regions
- Albacete is derived from the Arabic (al-basit- the plain)
- Albarracín town in Aragón. Derived from Al Ban? Razin, name of the Berber governor of the town.
- Alcalá (a1-qa1cah – the fort)
- Axarquía Eastern region of Málaga province, From Arabic Ash-sharquía, The eastern/oriental (region).
- Andalucía from, Al Andalus, the Arabic name for Muslim Iberia, but there is great debate to its origin: see here.
- Algarve From Arabic “Al-Gharb Al-Andalus“. Al-Gharb means “the west”;
- Algeciras from Al Jazeera Al Khadra meaning the green island.
- Almería City and province of Andalucía. From Al Meraya. There is divergence of opinion as to the original meaning of its name. Some sources talk of al-Mirayah meaning the ‘the mirror’, others of Al-Meraya meaning ‘the watchtower’. Whatever the case (probably the latter) it comes form Arabic.
- Benicasim (Bani Qasim – the sons of Qasim) ;
- Calatayud (qal cat Ayyub – the fort of Ayyub [Job]);
- Calatazor (qal cat al-nasur – the fort of eagles)
- Guadalajara Wad? al-?ij?rah, River or canyon of Stones.
- Jaén: From Arabic Jayyan, crossroads of caravans.
- La Mancha Derived from original Arabic name: la’a Ma-anxa : “No water”.
- Medina Sidonia: from madina, city.
- Tarifa: Originally Jazeera Tarif: the island of Tarif. Derived form the first name of the Berber conqueror Tarif ibn Malik.
- Valladolid: from Balad al-Walid in Arabic, meaning ‘Land or town of of Walid’.
More here
See also Arabic in Spain
Etymology of Spanish words, Spanish language, Uncategorized | Tags: etymology of Spanish placenames, etymology of Spanish towns, Geographical placenames in Spain, Spanish toponyms, Toponyms in Spain|
I came across this interesting list of words in Spanish which possibly come from Celtic languages (Gaulish and others) on Wikipedia, including these words:
- barro “mud”; akin to Middle Irish broch “garbage”, Welsh barros “bush”
- brezo “heather”; akin to Welsh grug, Cornish grig, Middle Breton groegan, Old Irish froech, Irish fraoch
- brujo “sorceror”, bruja “witch” (also Port bruxa, Catal bruixa); akin to Middle Welsh brith-ron “magic wand”, Breton bre “witch, magic”, breoù “spells, charms”, Old Irish brigim “to light up, illuminate”, Brigit “shining one”.
- tejon “badger”; akin to Old Irish tadg “badger”, Scottish taghan “marten”
- sabueso “hound” (also Port sabuja, Ital segugio, Old Fr seüz); akin to Old Irish sechim “I follow”, Irish seach “to follow”, Middle Welsh -hei “seeker” (cf. cardotei “beggar”), Old Breton -heiat “searcher, gatherer” (cf. cnouheiat “nut gatherer”)
The wikipedia list uses Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española by Guido Gómez de Silva as a reference.
See also Celtic origin of word braga (knickers) here “No, no; no es que hoy vaya a publicar una entrada “porno”. La palabra braga(s), que en España designa una prenda interior femenina, es de origen celta y muy decente. A nosotros nos llega por mediación del latín braca….
Etymology of Spanish words, Spanish language | Tags: Celtic languages in Spain, Gaulish Spanish, origin of Spanish words|
I enjoyed this potted history of Mojácar:
Paddy Woodworth i
