Adobe
/əˈdoʊ.bi/noun
A sun-dried brick or building material made from earth, water, and organic fibers.
Did you know?The word entered Spanish through Arabic during Muslim rule in Iberia, then crossed the Atlantic with Spanish colonization and became central to Indigenous and colonial architecture.
Etymological Timeline
Ancient Egyptian
Egyptian
ḏbt
“Brick; an early Egyptian source proposed for the later Coptic and Arabic forms”
Coptic
Coptic
tōbe
“Brick”
Medieval Arabic
Arabic
al-ṭūb
“The brick; al- is the Arabic definite article”
Medieval Spanish
Spanish
adobe
“Sun-dried brick, borrowed from Arabic al-ṭūb”
16th Century
Spanish
adobe
“Earth brick or clay building material in Spanish America”
Modern English
English
adobe
“Sun-dried earth brick or the construction material made from it”