baca

Meaning

1. (declension-1) various small fruit of trees and shrubs: a berry, stone fruit (including olives, cherries)
2. (declension-1) an olive fruit in particular, an olive-berry
3. (declension-1) a pearl
4. (declension-1) a coral bead or piece

Concepts

berry

pearl

bead

creek

bay

picture window

bight

cove

Synonyms

margarita

acinus

Translations

bacca

Beere

baya

baga

bes

perla

Perle

baia

perle

baie

kraal

πέρλα

χάντρα

bezie

Pronounced as (IPA)

[ˈbaː.ka]

Etymology

Unknown. Possibly:
* If from Proto-Indo-European, it may be connected to Lithuanian bapkas (“berry, laurel”), which renders a sound-symbolic root *bab- (“to be round; small fruit”), evolving into *bab-ca and finally bā̆(c)ca (with compensatory lengthening or gemination). This etymology suffers from phonological problems as well as the paucity of cognates, but for the alternation compare the pairs cippus : cīpus and littera : lītera.
* Somehow related to Ancient Greek Βάκχος (Bákkhos, “Bacchus; twig used as a symbol of Bacchus?”), which cannot be inherited and may be Pre-Greek or Anatolian in origin.
* More likely, from a local substrate source perhaps shared with Proto-Berber *bqā (“blackberry, mulberry, shrub berry”).