adobe

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From Spanish adobe, from Arabic الطوب (aṭ-ṭūb), from Coptic (Sahidic) ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe, “brick”), from Egyptian

ḏbt (djebe, djobe, “mud brick”).

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /aˈdəʊ.bi/
• Rhymes: -əʊbi

Noun

adobe (usually uncountable; plural adobes)

1. An unburnt brick dried in the sun.

   Many people in Texas and New Mexico live in adobe houses.

   • (Can we date this quote?) O’Henry, Cabbages and Kings

     Stone sidewalks, little more than a ledge in width, ran along the base of the mean and monotonous adobe houses.

   • (Can we date this quote?) O’Henry, Roads of Destiny

     “Find me a nice, clean adobe wall,” says he, “and send Senor Rompiro up against it.”

   • (Can we date this quote?) Star Wars script

     The Jawas mutter gibberish as they busily line up their battered captives, including Artoo and Threepio, in front of the enormous Sandcrawler, which is parked beside a small homestead consisting of three large holes in the ground surrounded by several tall moisture vaporators and one small adobe block house.

   • 26 May 2003, Roger Angell, in The New Yorker,

     The Sangre de Cristos came into view and the first soft-cornered adobe houses, and that night we ate at La Fonda with my Aunt Elsie, who worked for the Indian Bureau, and had Hopi snake dances and San Ildefonso pottery-makers and Mabel Dodge Luhan in store for us in the coming weeks.

2. A house made of adobe brick.
   • 2007 March 11, Ralph Blumenthal, “Prosecutor’s Ouster Shifts Political Order”:

     The snow-dusted mesas and million-dollar adobes look enchanting as ever […] .

Translations

unburnt brick

• Bulgarian: кирпич (bg) (kirpič)
• Catalan: tova (ca) f
• Czech: vepřovice (cs) f
• Dutch: adobe (nl)
• Esperanto: adobo (eo)
• Finnish: savitiili (fi)
• French: adobe (fr) m
• Greek: πλίνθος (el) (plínthos) m, πλίθος (el) (plíthos) m, ωμόπλινθος (el) (omóplinthos) m, πλίθρα (el) (plíthra) f, πλίθα (el) (plítha) f

• Hungarian: vályog (hu), vályogtégla (hu)
• Isthmus Zapotec: basoo
• Navajo: bis
• Persian: خشت (fa) (khesht)
• Romanian: chirpici (ro) n
• Russian: саман (ru) (samán) m
• Spanish: adobe (es) m
• Taos: adùbi’íne (the material), ną̀xù’úna (the individual bricks)
• Vietnamese: gạch sống (vi)

Anagrams

• abode

References

• adobe, Online Etymology Dictionary

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Dutch

Wikipedia ^nl

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɑˈdoː.bə/

Etymology

From Spanish

Noun

adobe m (plural adobes, diminutive adobetje)

1. adobe

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French

Wikipedia ^fr

Etymology

From Spanish adobe.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /a.dɔb/

Noun

adobe m (plural adobes)

1. adobe

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Spanish

Wikipedia ^es

Etymology

From Arabic الطوب (aṭ-ṭūb), from Coptic (Sahidic) ⲧⲱⲃⲉ (tōbe, “brick”), from Egyptian

ḏbt (djebe, djobe) 'mud brick'.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /aˈðoβe/

Noun

adobe m (plural adobes)

1. adobe

Verb

adobe (infinitive adobar)

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of adobar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of adobar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of adobar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of adobar.