almádena

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic المَأْذَنة (al-maʔḏana).

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /awˈma.de.nɐ/ [aʊ̯ˈma.de.nɐ]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /alˈma.dɨ.nɐ/ [aɫˈma.ðɨ.nɐ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /alˈma.dɨ.nɐ/ [aɫˈma.ðɨ.nɐ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /alˈma.dɨ.nɐ/ [aɫˈma.dɨ.nɐ]

Noun

almádena f (plural almádenas)

1. minaret (mosque tower)

   Synonym: minarete

Further reading

• “almádena”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “almádena”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Alternative forms

• almádana, almádina
• almáina, almaina (Granada, Murcia)

Etymology

From Andalusian Arabic الْمَاطَنَة (al-māṭana, “sledgehammer”), of unclear origin, speculated from Ancient Greek πατάνη (patánē, “a flat dish”) reanalyzed as a tool noun which has also been borrowed as بَطَانَة (baṭāna), پَطَانَة (paṭāna, “dishware or other large thing of little value”), because of batán (“fulling mill or the mallet thereof”), compare for the semantical development Russian кия́нка (kijánka, “mallet”) which is actually from Polish kijanka (“particularly a batlet of a fuller”) and what is at Arabic كُذِين (kuḏīn, “fuller’s beetle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /alˈmadena/ [alˈma.ð̞e.na]
• Rhymes: -adena
• Syllabification: al‧má‧de‧na

Noun

almádena f (plural almádenas)

1. sledgehammer

References

• Corriente, Federico, Pereira, Christophe, Vicente, Angeles, editors (2017), “pṭn”, in Dictionnaire du faisceau dialectal arabe andalou. Perspectives phraséologiques et étymologiques (in French), Berlin: De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 157
• Corriente, Federico, Pereira, Christophe, Vicente, Angeles, editors (2017), “mṭn”, in Dictionnaire du faisceau dialectal arabe andalou. Perspectives phraséologiques et étymologiques (in French), Berlin: De Gruyter, →ISBN, page 1209
• Corriente, F. (1997), “mṭn”, in A Dictionary of Andalusi Arabic (Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East; 29)‎^[1], Leiden, New York, Köln: Brill, →ISBN, →LCCN, pages 505b–506a
• Corriente, Federico (2008), “almádena”, in Dictionary of Arabic and Allied Loanwords. Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician and Kindred Dialects (Handbook of Oriental Studies; 97), Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 138a

Further reading

• “almádena”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025