aba
nounUS /ˈæ.bə/
Etymology * From the name of its creator, the French explorer A. T. d' Abbadie.
1
An altazimuth used for astronomy on either land or water.
aba
nounUK /əˈbɑː/ · US /əˈbɑ/
Etymology Borrowed from Arabic عَبَاءَة (ʕabāʔa). Compare abaya.
1
A coarse, often striped, felted fabric from the Middle East, woven from goat or camel hair.
2
A loose-fitting sleeveless garment, made from aba or silk, worn by Arabs.
- 'A pale mauve abba such as you buy in the East.'1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 5, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 110:
- Here Nessim would sit night after night in the winter, dressed in his old rust-coloured abba, staring gravely at Betelgeuse, or hovering over books of calculations for all the world like a medieval soothsayer.1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine:
3
An outer garment made of the above, very simple in form, worn by the Arabs of the desert. The illustration shows such an aba, made of two breadths of stuff sewed together to make an oblong about four by nine feet.
4
Such a garment that is specific to women.
- Holonym: hijab
- Synonyms
- abaya