cama

Blend of camel +‎ llama.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɑːmə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːmə
• Homophones: comma (father-bother merger); karma (non-rhotic)

cama (plural camas)

1. A hybrid animal produced by breeding a camel and a llama.

• AACM, ACMA, AMAC, MCAA, maca

From Late Latin cama.

cama f (plural cames)

1. bed (piece of furniture)

Inherited from Late Latin gamba (“horse's hock”), from Ancient Greek καμπή (kampḗ, “bend”). Doublet of gamba.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈka.mə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈka.ma]

• Audio:

  (file)

cama f (plural cames)

1. leg

   Synonym: gamba

2. stem, stalk, stipe (of a plant)
3. gaskin (of a horse)

• “cama”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

Inherited from Spanish cama, from Late Latin cama.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkama/, [ˈka.ma]

cama

1. bed

• Audio:

  (file)

cama

1. third-person singular past historic of camer

From Old Galician-Portuguese cama, from Late Latin cama (6th century, Isidore of Seville), probably from Paleo-Hispanic.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkama/ [ˈkɑ.mɐ]
• Rhymes: -ama
• Hyphenation: ca‧ma

cama f (plural camas)

1. bed
   • 1484, X. Ferro Couselo (ed.), A vida e a fala dos devanceiros. Escolma de documentos en galego dos séculos XIII ao XVI. 2 vols. Vigo: Galaxia, page 127:

     Iten, mando mays á dita Contança Gonçales, miña muller, a quarta parte da adega dos Vrancos, por quanto eu e ela conpramos a metade da dita adega a Meen Suares Galinato, e mándolle mays a cuba en que teño o viño branco e mays outras duas cubas que son dentro ena dita adega aa maao esquerda, vasyas, que teñen cada una doze moyos de lagar, e mays lle mando una cama de roupa con quatro cabeçaás e un colchón e un almadraque e con suas sabaas e media duzia d'almofadas e con hua manta de picote, e se ouver em casa un par de colchas, que aja ela una delas.

     Item, I devise said Constanza González, my wife, a fourth of the wine cellar of Os Brancos, since we both bought a half of it from Men Suarez Galiñato; and I also bequeath a cask in which I have the white wine, and also two other casks that are inside that wine cellar, on the left, empty, each one having twelve modii; and also bequeath to her a clothed bed with four pillows and a mattress and a mat, and with its sheets and half a dozen cushions and a blanket of coarse linen, and if there is in the house a pair of quilts, she should have one of them

   Synonym: leito

2. platform of a cart
3. garden plot

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “cama”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “cama”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “cama”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “cama”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “cama”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

• “cama”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025
• “cama” in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (2014).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkamˠə/

cama

1. nominative/vocative/dative/strong genitive plural of cam

Isidore, quoted below, folk-etymologises a dubious Greek origin. Still, no solid alternative is available. The distribution of its descendants may suggest it was borrowed from Paleo-Hispanic.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkama/

cama f (genitive camae); first declension (Late Latin)

1. bed
   • ca. 600, Isidorus Hispalensis [Isidore of Seville], Etymologiae, 19, 22, 29 & 20, 11, 2. In: Isidori Hispalensis episcopi etymologiarum sive originum libri XX. Recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit W. M. Linday. Tomus II libros XI–XX continens, Oxonium, 1911:

     Camisias vocari quod in his dormimus in camis, id est in stratis nostris.
     Cama est brevis et circa terram; Graeci enim χαμαὶ breve dicunt.

     They are called bed-shirts because in these we sleep on beds, that is, on our beds.
     A bed is low and near the ground, for the Greeks say χαμαὶ for "low".

First-declension noun.

• Asturian: cama
• Mirandese: cama
• Old Galician-Portuguese: cama
  • Galician: cama
  • Portuguese: cama (see there for further descendants)
• Spanish: cama (see there for further descendants)

• “cama”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cama in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

From Late Latin cama, first attested in Isidore. Likely a borrowing from an Iberian substrate.

• IPA^(key): /ˈka.ma/

cama f (plural camas)

1. bed

• Galician: cama
• Portuguese: cama (see there for further descendants)

cama

1. alternative spelling of camma

Inherited from Late Latin camba. Eventually lost, likely due to homophony with cama (“bed”). Cf. Catalan cama (“leg”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈkama/

cama f (plural camas)

1. leg
2. thigh

• Fulk, Randal C. 1980. Old Spanish ''tiesta'' and ''cama''. Romance Notes 20. 441–447.

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese cama, from Late Latin cama, first attested in Isidore. Likely a borrowing from an Iberian substrate.

• Rhymes: (Portugal) -ɐmɐ, (Brazil) -ɐ̃mɐ
• Hyphenation: ca‧ma

cama f (plural camas)

2. bed (furniture for sleeping on)

   Synonyms: leito, ninho

• Kabuverdianu: kama
• → Chichewa: kama
• ⇒? Kimbundu: mukama

• quarto

Inherited from Late Latin cama, first attested in Isidore. Likely a borrowing from an Iberian substrate.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkama/ [ˈka.ma]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ama
• Syllabification: ca‧ma

cama f (plural camas)

1. bed

   Synonyms: catre (Philippines), lecho (less common)

• Chavacano: cama
• → Bikol Central: kama
• → Maranao: kama
• → Tagalog: kama

• “cama”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024
• “cama”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010

• IPA^(key): /dʒaˈma/

cama

1. dative singular of cam