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aljuba

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word aljuba

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
943 a Latin charter of San Pedro de Cardeña, spelt algupa More words from the 10th century
Borrowed from
Arabic جبة
Ultimate origin
Arabic جبة

Pronunciation

  • /alˈxuba/, [alˈxu.β̞a][1]

Forms

aljuba f (plural aljubas)[1] Medieval forms include algupa, aliuba, aljuva and aljupa; the aljamiado texts have alchubba.[2] The word is feminine, now and then masculine.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic جبة (alǧúbba), from Arabic جبة (ǧubba, “a kind of long coat with sleeves”), with the Arabic article.[4][5][1] Wiktionary calls it a doublet of chupa, which Corominas takes from French.[1][6]

jubón is derived from it or from the rarer variant juba, but Corominas thinks the forms without the article came through another Romance language, perhaps Occitan or French.[5][6] The same Arabic word gave Portuguese aljuba, Catalan jupa (Old Catalan aljuba in the 13th-century Customs of Tortosa), Occitan jupa, French jupe and Italian giubba.[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is algupa in a Latin charter of 943 from San Pedro de Cardeña, where the gifts received include pannum de aliuba “cloth for an aljuba”, and again in 984.[2][5][3] In Spanish prose Alfonso X's Estoria de España (c. 1270) has the Moors put the sleeves of their aliubas before their eyes and weep.[8]

Semantic evolution

The aljuba was a Moorish garment that the Christians wore too, men and women alike, made of coarse or rich cloth.[9][2] The Cortes of Toro in 1369 fixed eight maravedís as the tailor's price for a buttoned aljuba, and in the Corbacho (1438) a girl borrows her sister's green one.[2] Corominas dates it in Spanish texts from the late 13th to the 15th century, and Nebrija gave it the Latin equivalent vestis punica.[5][10] In 1726 the Diccionario de Autoridades treated it as a garment of the past, but noted that Moorish captives rowing in the galleys wore a sleeveless sack called aljuba.[9] The Academy's definition of 1899 added the short, narrow sleeves.[11]

Timeline

  • 943 – algupa in a Latin charter of Cardeña.[3][6]
  • c. 1270 – aliubas in the Estoria de España.[8]
  • 1280 – Alfonso X's General Estoria.[12]
  • 1325–1335 – aljuba in El Conde Lucanor.[13][14]
  • 1369 – the Cortes of Toro fix the tailor's price for an aljuba.[2]
  • c. 1400 – the derivative jubón.[5]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija's aljuba morisca.[15]
  • 1516 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.[16]
  • 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades on the galley slaves' aljuba.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (historical) A Moorish garment, also worn by Christians, with a body fitted at the waist, buttons, sleeves and a skirt reaching about to the knees.[4][17][1]

Word family

  • jubón
  • chupa
  • juba
  • Portuguese aljuba
  • French jupe

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. aljuba
  3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. aljuba
  4. ^ a b 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. aljuba
  5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 532
  6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jubón
  7. ^ Dozy, Reinhart; Engelmann, W. H. (1869), Glossaire des mots espagnols et portugais dérivés de l'arabe, 2nd ed., Leyde: Brill, p. 165
  8. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 246
  9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 219
  10. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 290
  11. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 49
  12. ^ 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. aljuba
  13. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. aljuba
  14. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 28
  15. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. aljuba
  16. ^ 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. aljuba
  17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. aljuba

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Aljuba.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/aljuba. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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