CertainFood & garden · Everyday

aceituna

olive (the fruit)fruto del olivo

Comes from Arabic

الزَّيْتُونَة

az-zaytūna

“the olive (a single one)”«la aceituna (una sola)»

Arabic today says

زَيْتُون

zaytūn

And it still does

Root

ز ي ت

z-y-t

The article

Spanish kept the Arabic article al- glued to the word.

Arabic itself had taken it from Aramaic.

The story

It is related to aceite, "oil" (az-zayt): the final -a of zaytūna marks "one unit", as in Arabic tamra, "a date". Notice that az- gave ace- here too.Es pariente de aceite (az-zayt): la -a final de zaytūna marca «una unidad», como en árabe tamra, «un dátil». Fíjate en que az- dio ace- también aquí.

In a sentence

Pon unas aceitunas en la ensalada.

Put a few olives in the salad.

ضَعْ بَعْضَ حَبَّاتِ الزَّيْتُونِ فِي السَّلَطَة.