Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun White fibrous nerve-tissue, as distinguished from the gray or cellular.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A white-flowered shrub rose of the hybrid Rosa × alba.
  • noun A flower of the hybrid Rosa × alba.
  • noun Plural form of album.
  • noun A type of lyrical poetry, traditionally Provençal, about lovers who must part at dawn.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested in 1848; from the 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).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested in 1859; from the Latin alba, the nominative plural form of album ("blank tablet"), whence the English album.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested in 1821; from the Occitan alba, ultimately from the Latin albus ("white"); compare the Spanish alba ("dawn").

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Examples

  • The alb, form the Latin word alba, or “white,” is the full-length garment symbolizing our baptismal purity, and the robes of righteousness Christ offers us by his grace.

    An Instructed Eucharist Fr Timothy Matkin 2007

  • The alb, form the Latin word alba, or “white,” is the full-length garment symbolizing our baptismal purity, and the robes of righteousness Christ offers us by his grace.

    Archive 2007-03-01 Fr Timothy Matkin 2007

  • January 31st, 2007 at 7: 47 pm jessica alba is fit! poppa smurf Says:

    Jessica Alba – Oscars 2006 Post Show Video 2006

  • The word alba, indeed, meets us not infrequently in connection with ecclesiastical vesture in the first seven centuries, but we cannot safely argue from the identity of the name to the identity of the thing.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize 1840-1916 1913

  • Charlize Theron + Katherine Heigl + Ali Larter …. and jessica alba will be the female D'Artagnan ..!!!

    The Three Musketeers Will Return to the Big Screen Too?! « FirstShowing.net 2008

  • Sechuan Button is a term coined by Koppert Cress for Acmella oleracea, a plant developed through cultivation of Acmella alba, which is native to Peru and Brazil.

    Sechuan Buttons: The Taste of Electricity Michelle Krell Kydd 2008

  • Sechuan Button is a term coined by Koppert Cress for Acmella oleracea, a plant developed through cultivation of Acmella alba, which is native to Peru and Brazil.

    Archive 2008-09-01 Michelle Krell Kydd 2008

  • Pods of both species are beige to off-white, from which the species name alba, or white, originates.

    Chapter 10 1996

  • Pods of both species are beige to offwhite, from which the species name alba, or white, originates.

    Chapter 45 1990

  • In West Africa, there are three recognised types: nigra, widespread in Mali, with small tubers and blackish skin; rubra, with small reddish-gray or reddish-yellow tubers; and alba, which is whitish.

    Chapter 19 1987

Comments

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  • Known in English as Scotland.

    August 27, 2008

  • known in biology (and scrabble) as the white matter of the brain.

    known in hollywood as jessica.

    November 7, 2008

  • Jo, given the image search results, I would say the latter is more popular than the former.

    November 7, 2008

  • I wonder if she's ever fully clothed.

    November 7, 2008