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algarrobo

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word algarrobo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1513 Gabriel Alonso de Herrera, Obra de agricultura More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origin
Arabic خروبة

Pronunciation

  • /alɡaˈrobo/, [al.ɣ̞aˈro.β̞o][1]

Forms

algarrobo m (plural algarrobos)[1] Early texts spell it algarrovo;[1] Nebrija has garrovo.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish algarroba, the name of its fruit.[4][5][1] The fruit's name is خروبة (alẖarrúba), from Arabic خروبة (ḵarrūba), which the DLE traces further to a Persian expression meaning “donkey's jaw”.[6][1] Corriente, Pereira and Vicente render it rather as “beans for donkeys”.[7] The Diccionario de Autoridades already said that the tree's name has the same origin as that of its fruit.[8]

The same Arabic word gave Catalan garrofer and French caroubier, and Terreros gives Italian carrubo as the Italian name.[9][10] The Murcian name of the tree is garrofero, from the variant garrofa of the fruit's name.[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gabriel Alonso de Herrera's Obra de agricultura (1513) has a chapter on the algarrouos, trees that bear pods shaped like beans and grow in hot lands and on the seashore.[11][2]

Semantic evolution

In the Americas the Spaniards gave the name to native plants quite unlike the European tree.[5] A record from Santo Domingo in 1551 already praises the wood of garrobos, and Cieza de León describes great groves of algarrobos in the coastal valleys of Peru in 1553.[12][13] A chronicle of 1625 explains that the Spaniards called the trees the natives named guarangos algarrobos because their fruit looks like carob pods.[12] Friederici identifies the main American tree as a species of Prosopis.[14] Today the name covers the courbaril in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, the rain tree in the Andes and the Río de la Plata, and other species.[15]

From the fruit's variant garrofa Spanish formed guinda garrofal, a large cherry nearly the size of a carob pod (1611), later changed to garrafal and used of anything enormous.[5][3]

Timeline

  • 1513 – algarrouos in Herrera's Obra de agricultura.[11][5]
  • 1551 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, as garrobos.[12]
  • 1553 – Cieza de León's groves of algarrobos in Peru.[13]
  • 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades describes the tree.[8]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the modern definition and the phrase algarrobo loco.[16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua), an evergreen tree of mild coastal regions, with leathery glossy leaves and purple flowers, whose fruit is the algarroba.[4][1]
  2. (Latin America) A name for several other trees, such as the courbaril or the cenízaro, and for species of Prosopis.[4][15][1]

Word family

  • algarrobo loco
  • algarrobo blanco
  • algarrobo negro
  • algarroba
  • garrofa
  • garrafal
  • Catalan garrofer

Usage notes

Algarrobo loco is the ciclamor or Judas tree.[4][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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. algarrobo
  3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 160
  4. ^ a b c d 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. algarrobo
  5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. algarroba
  6. ^ 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. algarroba
  7. ^ 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. alfarroba
  8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 203
  9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 220
  10. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 71
  11. ^ 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. algarrobo
  12. ^ a b c 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. algarrobo
  13. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. algarrobo
  14. ^ Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 47
  15. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. algarrobo
  16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 51
Cite this entry

“Algarrobo.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/algarrobo. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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