Skip to content
Ojalá
Words
Certain: The standard etymology in the RAE dictionary and in Corriente; no serious doubt.Clothes & colour · Specialized

aljófar

seed pearl, a small irregular pearl; dewdropsperla pequeña e irregular; gotas de rocío

Comes from Arabic

الجَوْهَر

al-jawhar

“the jewel, the precious stone”«la joya, la piedra preciosa»

Arabic today says

لُؤْلُؤ

luʾluʾ

The article

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

Arabic itself had taken it from Persian.

The story

From Persian gōhar. In Arabic jawhar went from "jewel" to "essence", while Spanish narrowed it to tiny pearls; poets call the dew aljófar.Del persa gōhar. En árabe jawhar pasó de «joya» a «esencia», mientras que el español lo especializó en las perlas menudas; los poetas llaman aljófar al rocío.

More from “Clothes & colour”