alapa

English

Noun

alapa (plural alapas)

1. Alternative form of alap

Anagrams

• alaap, apala

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Latin

Etymology

Of unknown origin.

Originally used by Romans to refer to describe the strike given from master to slave upon manumission as a final act of indignity. First attested in Phaedrus when the Empire was already greatly expanded, then in the Semitic-loanword ridden Juvenal and largely attested in the Christian writings, i. e. from the proponents of a Semitic religion.

Hence, probably from Aramaic אַלַּף (allap̄, “to teach”), because that’s what a slap does, and Semites are the main responsibles for slavery business, from Proto-Semitic *ʾallipa (“to tame, to domesticate; to familiarize, to instruct, to put together, to join”), related via the idea of an ox trained to Proto-Semitic *ʾalp- (“ox, ox in a yoke”).

Noun

alapa f (genitive alapae); first declension

1. slap, smack (with the flat of the hand)

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	alapa	alapae
Genitive	alapae	alapārum
Dative	alapae	alapīs
Accusative	alapam	alapās
Ablative	alapā	alapīs
Vocative	alapa	alapae

Descendants

• Aromanian: arpã, aripã
• Calabrian: álipa
• French: aube
• Galician: aba (?); labazada (?)
• Italian: lapazza

• Old Catalan: àlep
• Portuguese: aba
• Romanian: aripă
• Spanish: álabe
  • → Basque: alabezki
• Venetian: slèpa

References

• “alapa”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “alapa”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• alapa in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• alapa in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1907) “Zur romanischen Sprachgeschichte”, in Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, volume 31, pages 582–586
• “ˀlp”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–

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Portuguese

Verb

alapa

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