biznaga

biznaga (countable and uncountable, plural biznagas)

1. Alternative form of bisnaga (“plant of celery family”)

• IPA^(key): (Spain) /biθˈnaɡa/ [biθ̬ˈna.ɣ̞a]
• IPA^(key): (Latin America) /bisˈnaɡa/ [bizˈna.ɣ̞a]
• Rhymes: -aɡa
• Syllabification: biz‧na‧ga

From Old Spanish, borrowed from Andalusian Arabic بِسْنَاج‎ (bisnāj), بِسْتِنَاجَة‎ (bistināja), بِشْتِْنَاجَة‎ (bištināja), بِشْتِنَاقَة‎ (bištināqa, “parsnip”), from Latin pastināca (“parsnip, carrot”).

biznaga f (plural biznagas)

1. toothpickweed, khella (Visnaga daucoides (syn. Ammi visnaga))

• → Basque: bisnaga, biznaga
• → Catalan: bisnaga, biçnaga (obsolete)
• → Galician: bisnaga, biznaga, bizniega

Borrowed from Classical Nahuatl huitznahuac (“surrounded by thorns”), from huitztli (“thorn”) + nciuac (“near, around”). Influenced by biznaga (Etymology 1).

biznaga f (plural biznagas)

1. (Mexico) Any of several species of small, prickly cacti, especially barrel cacti

• Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Angeles, editors (2019) Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans. Emprunts à l’arabe et aux langues du Monde Islamique (in French), Berlin: De Gruyter, page 252, still referring but to reconstructed Andalusi Arabic “*bis(s)ináqa”, oblivious of the attested forms Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Angeles, editors (2017) Dictionnaire du faisceau dialectal arabe andalou. Perspectives phraséologiques et étymologiques (in French), Berlin: De Gruyter, page 143, 145, 146

• “biznaga”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014