mezquita

mezquita

See also: Mezquita

English

Etymology

Spanish mezquita. Doublet of mosque.

Noun

mezquita (plural mezquitas)

1. (dated) A Moorish or Spanish mosque.

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Asturian

Noun

mezquita f (plural mezquites)

1. (Islam) mosque (a place of worship for Muslims)

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Spanish

Etymology

Usually claimed as being from Arabic مَسْجِد‎ (masjid, “mosque”), which is however phonologically difficult, so Al-Jallad (2017) suggests that it is a better match for Aramaic 𐡌𐡎𐡂𐡃𐡀‎ (msgdʾ /masgəḏā/, “the mosque”), which he also posits as the source of Byzantine Greek μασγίδα (masgída) and Central Atlas Tamazight ⵜⴰⵎⴻⵣⴳⵉⴷⴰ (tamezgida), which would have been borrowed directly due to closer contact of Romance speakers with Aramaic-speaking Christians or due to the Aramaic form being passed on in colloquial Arabic still in foreign shape.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /meθˈkita/ [meθˈki.t̪a]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /mesˈkita/ [mesˈki.t̪a]

• Audio (Colombia)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ita
• Syllabification: mez‧qui‧ta

Noun

mezquita f (plural mezquitas)

1. mosque (place of worship for Muslims)
2. (by extension, obsolete) a Native American (especially Aztec) religious site (during the Spanish conquest of the Americas)
   • 1520 October 30, Hernán Cortés, a letter about "la matanza de cholula", quoted in 1992, El genocidio en México durante la conquista (1519-1521): crónica:

     "...y certifico a vuestra alteza que yo conté desde una mezquita a cuatrocientos una mezquita y tantas torres en dicha ciudad, y todas son de mezquitas..."

Derived terms

• Explanada de las Mezquitas

References

• Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2017), “The Arabic of the Islamic Conquests: Notes on Phonology and Morphology based on the Greek Transcriptions from the First Islamic Century”, in Bulletin of School of African and Oriental Studies‎, volume 80, issue 3, pages 419–439

Further reading

• “mezquita”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014