alba
Pluralalbas
- 1A lyric poem, traditionally from Provence, about lovers who must part at dawn.
The troubadour's alba captured the sorrow of dawn pulling two lovers apart.
Several albas survive from twelfth-century Provence, each lamenting the coming day.
Similaraubade
Note
The genre is named for the moment it mourns. English borrowed it in 1821 from Occitan alba, which goes back to Latin albus, 'white', and matches Spanish alba, 'dawn': the whitening sky. The same Latin root lies behind the white rose and the white vestment, so these spellings coincide by descent, not by accident. In English it stays a literary term, with the plural albas.
- 2A white-flowered shrub rose belonging to the hybrid group Rosa × alba.
The gardener pruned the alba carefully after its summer flowering.
Several albas lined the old stone wall, their white blooms fragrant in the morning.
Note
A gardener's name that outlived its botany. It was borrowed in 1848 from the old species name Rosa alba, where alba is simply Latin for 'white' in the feminine. Botanists now treat the plant as a hybrid and write Rosa × alba, with the × marking the cross. The short name survived as an ordinary English noun: one rose is an alba, and several are albas.
- 3A flower of the hybrid rose Rosa × alba, usually white or pale pink.
She tucked an alba behind her ear before the dance began.
The petals of each alba opened pure white in the June sun.
- 4A full-length white linen vestment worn by clergy during liturgical services.
The deacon's alba was freshly pressed for the Easter Mass.
He tied a cincture around his alba before processing into the church.
Similaralb
Note
The Latin form of alb, kept whole. Both words descend from Ecclesiastical Latin alba, as in tunica alba, 'white tunic', and English holds them as doublets. Alb is the usual church word, while alba often turns up among Spanish or Latin terms, as in Isaac Holton's 1857 list of vestments beside casullas and estolas. The Lutheran Church in America's 1979 Yearbook still advertises 'choir albas'.
Less common meaning
- 5Plural of album. A rare form; the usual plural is albums.
Note
A Latin plural carried over intact. In Latin, album meant a blank tablet, and its nominative plural was alba. In English it is rare, and the regular albums is what readers expect. It sits most comfortably beside the historical Roman tablets of public notices. Used for photo or record albums, it looks learned and can be mistaken for the dawn poem.
Practice
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Origins
First recorded in 1821, this was borrowed from Occitan alba, ultimately from Latin albus ("white"); compare Spanish alba ("dawn").
First recorded in 1848, it was borrowed from Latin alba, the feminine form of albus ("white"), from the now-disused species name Rosa alba, which is today regarded as a hybrid and called Rosa × alba.
First recorded in 1859, it was borrowed from Latin alba, the nominative plural of album ("blank tablet"), the same source that gave English album.
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin alba ("alb"), from Latin alba (as in tunica alba, "white tunic," and vestis alba, "white garment"), the feminine of albus ("white"). It is a doublet of alb.