arroba
English
Noun
arroba (plural arrobas)
- An old Spanish weight used in Mexico and South America, approximately 25.36 pounds avoirdupois.
- An old Portuguese weight used in Brazil, approximately 32.38 pounds avoirdupois.
- An old Spanish liquid measure, approximately 3.54 imperial gallons (for wine) or 2.78 imperial gallons (for oil).
Translations
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for arroba in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)
Portuguese
Etymology
From Old Portuguese arroba, arrova, from an Andalusian Arabic derivative of Arabic اَلرُّبْع (ar-rubʿ, “one fourth”), being equal to one fourth of a quintal. Compare Galician arroba, Spanish arroba, Catalan arrova and Maltese raba'.
Pronunciation
- (Portugal) IPA(key): /ɐ.ˈʁo.bɐ/, [ɐ.ˈʁo.βɐ]
- Hyphenation: ar‧ro‧ba
Spanish
Etymology
From Old Spanish arroua, from Arabic اَلرُّبْع (ar-rubʿ, “one fourth”), being equal to one fourth of a quintal.
Noun
arroba f (plural arrobas)
- An ancient unit of measure of weight or volume, still used in some contexts in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. The exact amount varies by country, region and the substance being measured, being e.g. about 11.5 kg in most of Spain but 16.3 kg in Aragon, 13 kg as measure of oranges in Valencia and 16.1 liters as measure of wine.
- The ‘@’ symbol, used to signify this unit.
- (computing) at sign