acequia

English

Etymology

From Spanish acequia, from Arabic الساقیة (“water conduit”), ultimately from Classical Arabic سَقَى (saqā, “to irrigate”). Doublet of sakia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈseɪkɪə/, /əˈseɪkjə/

Noun

acequia (plural acequias)

1. An irrigation ditch, chiefly with reference to Mexico or the southwestern US. [from 19th c.]
   • 2006, Hampton Sides, Blood and Thunder, Abacus, published 2014, page 3:

     Las Vegas—“The Meadows” in Spanish—was a hodgepodge of adobe houses, set among rustling cornfields irrigated by a muddy acequia that seeped from the Gallinas River.

Derived terms

• acequia madre

Spanish

Etymology

From Arabic السَّاقِيَة (as-sāqiya, “the ditch”), from سَقَى (saqā, “to water”), through Andalusian Arabic. Compare Catalan séquia and Sicilian saja.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /aˈθekja/ [aˈθe.kja]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /aˈsekja/ [aˈse.kja]

• Audio (Venezuela):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ekja
• Syllabification: a‧ce‧quia

Noun

acequia f (plural acequias)

1. (agriculture) irrigation ditch

   Synonym: apante (Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua)

   • 1875, B[enito] Pérez Galdós, chapter XVI, in El equipaje del rey José (Episodios nacionales), page 158:

     Los caballos bebían en una gran acequia que de un punto a otro atravesaba el pueblo […].

     The horses drank from a large ditch that crossed the town from one point to another.

Derived terms

• acequia madre

 

Further reading

• “acequia”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28