Azambuja
Camino Portugués · Camino Portugués de la Costa
Distrito de LisboaPortugal
Here Camino Portugués and Camino Portugués de la Costa converge. It is one of the points where the pilgrim shares the way with those arriving by another route.
From the Arabic al-zanbuğa 'the wild olive', Latinised as Azambuja. A toponym characteristic of Andalusian agriculture in the middle Tagus, preserved after the reconquest.
Evolution of the name
- al-zanbuğa Andalusi Arabic 8th — 12th century
- Azambuja Portuguese from the 13th century
Reflections, to the letter
If you try an azeitona (olive) at any bar in town, you are eating, in cultivated variant, the tree that named the place twelve hundred years ago. The olive groves of the Tagus valley still produce where Andalusian agronomists planted al-zanbuğa (the oleaster, the wild olive) as rootstock for grafting.
Glossary
- Arabism
- A word or place name in Castilian, Portuguese or Catalan borrowed from Andalusian Arabic. The Peninsula preserves thousands: aceite, azúcar, almohada, alcázar, azulejo, Guadalquivir, Azambuja.
- Rootstock
- A plant onto which another variety is grafted to take advantage of the host's hardiness or root system. The oleaster (zanbuğ) was the preferred rootstock of the Andalusian olive grove — a rugged variety supporting a productive crown.
Sources
- Machado, J.P. — Dicionário Onomástico Etimológico da Língua Portuguesa
- Corriente, F. — Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance (Madrid: Gredos, 1999)
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Camino Portugués