anaquel

Spanish

Etymology

From Andalusian Arabic مَنَاقِل (manáqil), from Arabic مِنْقَلَة (minqala, “bench”). Doublet of mancala.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /anaˈkel/ [a.naˈkel]
• Rhymes: -el
• Syllabification: a‧na‧quel

Noun

anaquel m (plural anaqueles)

1. shelf

   Synonyms: balda, estante, repisa, tabla

   • 1956 [1944], Jorge Luis Borges, “La biblioteca de Babel”, in Ficciones, Buenos Aires: Emecé Editores, El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan, page 86:

     A cada uno de los muros de cada hexágono corresponden cinco anaqueles: cada anaquel encierra treinta y dos libros de formato uniforme; cada libro es de cuatrocientas diez páginas; cada página, de cuarenta renglones; cada renglón, de unas ochenta letras de color negro.

     On each of the walls of each hexagon there are five shelves: each shelf holds thirty-two books of the same style; each book is four hundred ten pages long; each page, forty lines; each line, some eighty letters printed in black.

Further reading

• “anaquel”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10