Alba
name, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A type of lyrical poetry, traditionally Provençal, about lovers who must part at dawn.
- 2 A white-flowered shrub rose of the hybrid Rosa × alba.
- 3 plural of album form-of, plural, rare
"For quotations using this term, see Citations:alba."
- 4 Synonym of alb.
"On a little plot of grass near the kitchen the family were spreading out a large supply of priestly vestments—albas, casullas, capas pluviales, ornamentos, parmentos, cíngulas, estolas, frontales, etc., etc., etc."
- 5 A flower of the hybrid Rosa × alba.
- 1 A county of Transylvania, Romania.
- 2 Scotland, especially referring to the Kingdom of Alba, Scotland, between 900 and 1286. historical, poetic, rare
- 3 A female given name from Spanish alba (“dawn”), of modern usage.
- 4 A habitational surname from place names of obscure origin.
Example
More examples""Then, too, the boy Ascanius, named of late / Iulus (Ilus was he in the day / when firm by royalty stood Ilium's state) / shall rule till thirty years complete the destined date. / He from Lavinium shall remove his seat, / and gird Long Alba for defence.""
Etymology
First attested in 1821; borrowed from Occitan alba, ultimately from Latin albus (“white”); compare Spanish alba (“dawn”).
First attested in 1848; borrowed from Latin alba (the feminine form of albus (“white”)) in the now-disused species name of binomial nomenclature Rosa alba (it is now considered a hybrid and is accordingly called Rosa × alba).
First attested in 1859; borrowed from Latin alba, the nominative plural form of album (“blank tablet”), whence the English album.
Borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin alba (“alb”), from Latin alba (as in tunica alba (“white tunic”), vestis alba (“white garment”)), feminine of albus (“white”). Doublet of alb.
From Romanian Alba.
From Scottish Gaelic Alba, ultimately from the same origin as Etymology 1. Related to albino, Albania and Elbe. More at Albany.
From Spanish Alba, ultimately from the same origin as Etymology 1 and 2.
Related phrases
More for "alba"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.