alcazaba
Spanish edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Arabic قَصَبَة (qaṣaba), via Andalusian Arabic. Cognate with English casbah.
Pronunciation edit
- IPA(key): (Spain) /alkaˈθaba/ [al.kaˈθa.β̞a]
- IPA(key): (Latin America) /alkaˈsaba/ [al.kaˈsa.β̞a]
- Rhymes: -aba
- Syllabification: al‧ca‧za‧ba
Noun edit
alcazaba f (plural alcazabas)
- a Moorish fortress within or beside a walled city
- 2012, Isabel San Sebastián, Un Reino lejano, Random House Mondadori, page 210:
- no se transforma una alcazaba en castillo ni una mezquita en catedral para luego dejarla en manos del pueblo que crucificó a Cristo…
- one doesn’t turn a Moorish fortress into a castle nor a mosque into a cathedral before it is soon left in the hands of the people that crucified Christ…
Related terms edit
Further reading edit
- “alcazaba”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014