barranco

See also: Barranco

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish barranco.

Noun

barranco (plural barrancos or barrancoes)

1. A gully, gulch, or ravine.
   • 1867, The Month: A Magazine and Review, page 344:

     We remounted at 3 p.m., and for three hours and a half we rode down a goat-track which resembled the depths of a barranco. It was the dry bed of a river, with rocks balanced upon each other […]

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /baˈʁɐ̃.ku/ [baˈhɐ̃.ku]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /baˈʁɐ̃.ku/ [baˈhɐ̃.ku]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /baˈʁɐ̃.ku/ [baˈχɐ̃.ku]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /baˈʁɐ̃.ko/ [baˈhɐ̃.ko]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /bɐˈʁɐ̃.ku/

• Hyphenation: bar‧ran‧co

barranco (dirt cliff)

barranco (gully)

Noun

barranco m (plural barrancos)

1. a dirt cliff, especially one at the edge of a river or road

   Synonyms: barranca, ribanceira

2. gully (trench, ravine or narrow channel which was worn by water flow)

   Synonym: (Brazil) voçoroca

Related terms

• barranca
• barrancoso

Spanish

Etymology

Uncertain; maybe of pre-Roman origin. Cognate with Catalan barranc; cf. barra (“clay, mud”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /baˈranko/ [baˈrãŋ.ko]
• Rhymes: -anko
• Syllabification: ba‧rran‧co

Noun

barranco m (plural barrancos)

1. gully, gulch, ravine, barranca

   Synonyms: cañada, cañón, quiebra, quebrada

   • 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 7, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

     A little fire burned in the hollow of the dusty barranco, a clear red fire of the kind that gives little light and makes no smoke, and its pale glow showed but feebly against the rock behind.

Derived terms

• barranquismo
• barranquista
• embarrancar

 

Further reading

• “barranco”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28