arroba

From Spanish and Portuguese arroba, from Old Spanish arroua and Old Galician-Portuguese arrova, from Andalusian Arabic and Arabic اَلرُّبْع (ar-rubʕ, “one-fourth”) in reference to its making up one fourth of a quintal.

arroba (plural arrobas)

1. (historical) A traditional Spanish unit of mass, varying by time, location, and substance but generally around 11.5 kilograms.
2. (historical) A traditional Portuguese unit of mass, usually equivalent to 14.7 kilograms.
3. (historical) A traditional Spanish unit of liquid measure, varying by time, location, and substance but generally around 15 liters.

• (Spanish unit): libra (¹⁄₂₅ arroba), quintal (4 arrobas), tonelada (80 arrobas)
• (Portuguese unit): arratel (¹⁄₃₂ arroba), quintalejo (2 arrobas), quintal (4 arrobas), tonelada (54 arrobas)

• “arroba”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

From Old Galician-Portuguese arroba and arrova, from Andalusian Arabic and Arabic اَلرُّبْع (ar-rubʕ, “fourth”) in reference to its making up one-fourth of a quintal. Cognate with Galician and Spanish arroba, Catalan arrova, and Maltese raba’.

• Hyphenation: ar‧ro‧ba

arroba f (plural arrobas)

1. (historical) arroba, a traditional unit of mass, equivalent to 14.7 kg
2. (typography) at, the name of the symbol @

• (unit of mass): arrátel (¹⁄₃₂ arroba), quintalejo (2 arrobas), quintal (4 arrobas), tonelada (54 arrobas)

• IPA^(key): /aˈroba/ [aˈro.β̞a]
• Rhymes: -oba
• Syllabification: a‧rro‧ba

Inherited from Old Spanish arroua, from Arabic اَلرُّبْع (ar-rubʕ, “one-fourth”), in reference to its forming one fourth of a quintal.

arroba f (plural arrobas)

1. (historical) arroba (a traditional unit of mass generally equivalent to about 11.5 kg)
   • 1880, José Zorrilla, Recuerdos del tiempo viejo:

     volcaba él solo una caldera de doce arrobas de plomo fundido

     He turned over a twelve-arroba cauldron of molten lead by himself

2. (typography) at (the symbol @)

• The arroba is still used in some contexts within Spain and across Latin America, sometimes varying by region and application. The Aragonese arroba is about 16.3 kg and in Valencia it is about 13 kg for measuring oranges but 16.1 L for measuring wine.

• (unit of mass): libra (¹⁄₂₅ arroba), quintal (4 arrobas), tonelada (80 arrobas)

• → English: arroba
• → French: arobase

arroba

1. inflection of arrobar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “arroba”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014