bə, ˈæl-1815–25; < Old Provençal: dawn < Latin, feminine of albus white
| a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare. |
| a fool or simpleton; ninny. |
Alba.
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Alva or Alba (ˈælvə, Spanish ˈalβa, ˈælvə, Spanish ˈalβa) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —n | |
| Duke of, title of Fernando Alvarez de Toledo. 1508--82, Spanish general and statesman who suppressed the Protestant revolt in the Netherlands (1567--72) and conquered Portugal (1580) | |
| Alba or Alba | |
| —n | |
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alba al·ba (āl'bə)
n.
See white matter.
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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| Alba. Alberta |
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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alba
in the music of the troubadours, the 11th- and 12th-century poet-musicians of southern France, a song of lament for lovers parting at dawn or of a watchman's warning to lovers at dawn. A song of the latter type sometimes takes the form of a dialogue between a watchman and a lover. Some sources consider the alba an early form of an aubade, though unlike the alba an aubade is usually a celebration of the dawn. Examples of albas for which music also survives include Reis glorios by Giraut de Bornelh (c. 1140-c. 1200) and the anonymous Gaite de la tor. The minnesingers, the German counterparts of the troubadours, also used the form, calling it Tagelied ("day song").
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