adobe

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish adobe (“sun-dried brick”),^[2][3][4][5] which the OED, the American Heritage Dictionary and Klein derive from Arabic اَلطُّوب (aṭ-ṭūb, “the brick”), the word for brick with the definite article.^[2][6][7][8] Barnhart and Klein note that the spoken Arabic form had -ō- where the written form has -ū-.^[4][7] The Arabic word goes back through Coptic ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe, “brick”),^[6][5][9] Demotic Egyptian tb,^[10] to Egyptian ḏbt (“brick”).^[6][10][5] The Spanish word is recorded as adove in 1157, and earlier use is implied by its derivative adovera, a place or mould for making such bricks (1062).^[2] Ayto notes that Spanish passed many Arabic words on to the other European languages.^[9] Some dictionaries instead derive it from adobar (“to plaster, daub”),^{[11][12][13][14]} which Etymonline and Partridge connect with the source of daub.^[3][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A sun-dried brick made of clay and straw: 1748, in a translation of P. Lozano's account of the earthquake at Lima.^[2] Merriam-Webster also dates it to 1748,^[5] while Etymonline and Barnhart date it to 1739, as American English.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The word came into English through its use by the Spanish speakers of North America.^[9][3] From the brick it spread to the clay used to make such bricks (1826), and in geology to the fine silty clay of the dry basins of the southwestern United States;^[2][5] in American use it also came to mean a building made of these bricks (1852).^[2][12] Weekley notes the shortened American form dobe.^[14] In American slang adobe was used as a disparaging word for Mexican, and so for second-rate, as in adobe dollar for a Mexican peso, recorded from 1880.^[15]

Timeline

• 1739 – first record in American English, according to Etymonline and Barnhart.^[3][4]
• 1748 – a sun-dried brick.^[2][5]
• 1826 – the clay from which such bricks are made.^[2]
• 1852 – in the United States, a building made of such bricks.^[2]
• 1880 – adobe dollar, a Mexican peso, in American slang.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A brick of clay and straw dried in the sun: The walls were laid in adobe two feet thick.^[16][5][2]
2. The clay or earth from which such bricks are made, especially the heavy clay soil of dry regions of the southwestern United States.^[16][5][2]
3. A building made of such bricks.^[16][2]

Adjective

1. Made of adobe: an adobe church.^[16][5]

Word family

• adobelike

Related words

• daub

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
14. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins