alcaicería

Spanish

Etymology

From Andalusian Arabic القَيْصَرِيَّة (alqayṣaríyya), from Arabic اَلـ (al-, “the”) + قَيْصَر (qayṣar, “Caesar; emperor”) + ـِيّة (-iyya, noun-forming relational suffix), after the fact that such places were built by imperial decree. قَيْصَر (qayṣar) is from Ancient Greek Καῖσᾰρ (Kaîsar), in turn from Latin Caesar. Cognate with Portuguese alcaçaria.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /alkaiθeˈɾia/ [al.kai̯.θeˈɾi.a]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /alkaiseˈɾia/ [al.kai̯.seˈɾi.a]
• Rhymes: -ia
• Syllabification: al‧cai‧ce‧rí‧a

Noun

alcaicería f (plural alcaicerías)

1. (Spain, Andalusia, especially Granada, historical) A public marketplace where silk merchants would expose their merchandise in order to be charged with the duties they owed to the Moorish monarchs.
   • 2016 July, “La solución al problema del hambre”, in El Nacional‎^[1]:

     Hay a vender muchas maneras de filado de algodón, de todos colores, en sus madejitas, que parece propiamente alcaicería de Granada en las sedas, aunque esto otro es mucha más cantidad.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (Spain, Andalusia) Any marketplace, especially for silk.

   Synonym: mercado m

Descendants

• → Tagalog: alkayseriya

Further reading

• “alcaicería”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28