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Ojalá
Words
Certain: The standard etymology in the RAE dictionary and in Corriente; no serious doubt.Science & games · Specialized

alidada

alidade — the movable sighting rule of an astrolabe and other instrumentsregla móvil con mira del astrolabio y otros instrumentos

Comes from Arabic

العِضَادَة

al-ʿiḍāda

“the sighting rule of the astrolabe”«la regla de mira del astrolabio»

Arabic today says

عِضَادَة

ʿiḍāda

And it still does

Root

ع ض د

ʿ-ḍ-d

The article

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

The story

Here the emphatic ḍ was heard as d. Andalusi astrolabes carried the term all over Europe.La ḍ enfática se oyó aquí como d. Los astrolabios andalusíes llevaron el término a toda Europa.

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