alcoba

Forms

alcoba f (plural alcobas)^[1] The spelling alcova was common in the 17th and 18th centuries (Covarrubias heads his article so); Autoridades notes it and prefers ⟨b⟩ for the etymology.^[2][3] A form alcuba is recorded in a 19th-century glossary of aljamiado words.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic القبة (alqúbba), from Arabic قبة (qubba, “vault, dome”).^{[5][6][7][8][1]} The Academy takes the Arabic word back to Middle Persian gumbad (“dome of a fire temple”).^[5] The ⟨al-⟩ is the Arabic article, taken over with the noun.^[9][10]

Corominas shows that the sense “small room next to a hall”, from which “bedroom” comes, already existed in Arabic two centuries before the Spanish records, citing al-Nuwayri, so it did not arise in the Ibero-Romance languages;^[11] Dozy had made the same observation.^[6][11] A Valencian note he quotes explains the step from “vault” to “alcove”: the old bed recess there stood under a vault.^[6] The same word is Portuguese alcova and Catalan alcova, with ⟨v⟩, while Castilian always had /b/, even in the 13th-century texts.^[6][8] Spanish passed it to French alcôve (1648) and perhaps to Italian alcova (about 1500).^[6]

The sense “place of the public weighing” in the fueros of Madrid and Guadalajara is, for Corominas, another use of the word for a vaulted room, and he rejects Dozy's and Neuvonen's reading “balance”.^[6][12] Corriente derives the word for the case of a balance from a different Andalusian Arabic word.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in the Fuero de Madrid (1202), is a public room for weighing goods: en alcoba peset, et si en alcoba non pesaret, pectet “let him weigh in the alcoba, and if he does not weigh in the alcoba, let him pay a fine”.^[4][13][6] In Alfonso X's General Estoria (1272–1284) the word means a dome or cupola, as when a square house is crowned una alcoba de piedra mucho estranna “a very strange dome of stone”.^[14][6]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the word still meant “cupola” in the General Estoria, the Gran conquista de Ultramar and the Cavallero Zifar, which describes una alcova muy alta de bóveda.^[6][13] Alfonso X also used it for a chamber or small room, and the modern sense “bedroom” is recorded in Castilian from the early 16th century.^[14][6] Covarrubias (1611) defined it as a vaulted room for sleeping, and Autoridades (1726) as the room set aside for sleeping.^[2][3]

The word also named the case or frame of a balance in which the pointer moves, from the Seville ordinances of 1492 on, and it was used for a large fishing net.^[4][3][15] In 18th-century Mexico an alcoba was the informal evening gathering the viceroys held in their palace.^[16][5] Spanish alcoba, through French, is the source of the English word alcove (1670s).^[17]

Timeline

• 1202 – the Fuero de Madrid uses alcoba for the place of public weighing.^[6][4]
• 1219 – the Fuero de Guadalajara has the same sense.^[4]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria uses it for a stone dome.^[14]
• 1280 – the fourth part of the General Estoria uses it for a room inside a chapel.^[14]
• 1492 – the Seville ordinances use it for the case of a balance.^[4]
• 1608 – first record in the Americas, in Lima.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines alcova as a vaulted bedroom.^[2]
• 1648 – the French word alcôve, taken from Spanish, is first recorded.^[6]
• 1726 – Autoridades defines it as the room for sleeping.^[3]
• 1756 – a Mexican diary records the viceroys' evening alcobas.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Arabic etymology for the first time.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bedroom (dormitorio); in modern use somewhat formal or literary: Se retiró temprano a su alcoba.^[5][1][15]
2. (Mexico, historical) An informal evening gathering held by the viceroys in their palace.^[5][16]
3. (dated) The case of a balance in which the pointer moves.^[5][15]

Word family

• alcobilla

Related words

• Arabic قبة (qubba)
• French alcôve
• English alcove
• Portuguese alcova

Usage notes

Secreto de alcoba, a matter of a couple's private life, is a set phrase.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 114
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 183
4. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. alcoba
5. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. alcoba
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 135
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alcoba
8. ^ a b c Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 439
9. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 212
10. ^ Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. alcoba
11. ^ a b Dozy, Reinhart; Engelmann, W. H. (1869), Glossaire des mots espagnols et portugais dérivés de l'arabe, 2nd ed., Leyde: Brill, p. 108
12. ^ Neuvonen, Eero K. (1941), Los arabismos del español en el siglo XIII (Studia Orientalia X.1), Helsinki: Societas Orientalis Fennica, p. 176–177
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. alcoba
14. ^ a b c d Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. alcoba
15. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alcoba
16. ^ a b c García Icazbalceta, Joaquín (1899), Vocabulario de mexicanismos comprobado con ejemplos y comparado con los de otros países hispano-americanos, México: La Europea, p. s.v. alcoba
17. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
18. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. alcoba
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 46