oba

• ọba

From Yoruba ọba.

oba (plural obas)

1. A king of a Yoruba polity.

• iyoba

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “oba”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

• Åbo, bao, AOB, boa, Abo, ABO, BAO, Boa, a.o.b., OAB, Bao, abo, A/B/O

oba

1. naked

Cognates are found only in Oghuz languages, such as Turkmen ōba (“village”), Turkish oba (“large nomad tent; clan, tribe, village”).^[1] Compare, however, ova (“plains”).

• Audio:

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oba (definite accusative obanı, plural obalar)

1. camp of nomads or herdsmen
2. a small village or settlement
3. (chiefly iran) yurt

• el-oba

• “oba” in Obastan.com.

Inherited from Old Czech oba, from Proto-Slavic *oba.

• IPA^(key): /oba/

• Audio:

  (file)

oba m (feminine/neuter obě)

1. both

• “oba”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “oba”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “oba”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

oba

1. water

• Ritva Hemmilä, Orthography and Phonology Database: Islands and Momase Regions (Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1998), page 42, Guhu-Samane

• obuh

From English over.

• IPA^(key): /o.bə/, /o.bɒ/

oba

1. over
2. above

• De Nyew Testament‎^[1], Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc., 2025

• Virginia Mixson Geraty, Gulluh fuh oonuh: Gullah for You (1997)

• Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Association. Afro-Seminole Creole Wikitongues Language Class 

oba

1. alternative form of hob

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “oba”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

oba

1. Rōmaji transcription of おば

oba

1. Latin spelling of ობა (oba)

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *oba.

• IPA^(key): (13^th CE) /ˈoba/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /ˈoba/

oba

1. both

• Czech: oba

• Jan Gebauer (1903–1916), “oba”, in Slovník staročeský (in Czech), Prague: Česká grafická společnost "unie", Česká akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění

From Proto-West Germanic *oba, from Proto-Germanic *uba (“above”). Akin to ūf (“up”).

• ob

oba

1. above

oba

1. above

From Proto-Germanic *jabai.

oba

1. alternative form of ibu

• Middle High German: obe, ob, op
  • German: ob
  • Yiddish: אויב (oyb)

• Köbler, Gerhard, Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, (6. Auflage) 2014

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *oba. First attested in the 14th century.

• IPA^(key): (10^th–15^th CE) /ɔba/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /ɔba/

oba

1. both

• Polish: oba
• Silesian: ôba

• Boryś, Wiesław (2005), “oba”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, →ISBN
• Mańczak, Witold (2017), “oba”, in Polski słownik etymologiczny (in Polish), Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności, →ISBN
• Bańkowski, Andrzej (2000), “oba”, in Etymologiczny słownik języka polskiego [Etymological Dictionary of the Polish Language] (in Polish)
• B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “oba”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

Inherited from Proto-Tupi-Guarani *oβ.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔ.βa/
• Rhymes: -ɔβa
• Hyphenation: o‧ba

oba (possessable, IIe class pluriform, absolute soba, R1 roba, R2 soba)

1. leaf (green, flat organ of most vegetative plants)

   Synonym: ka'a

Some 18th century sources seem to restrict its usage to tree leaves, using ka'a for herbs.^[1][2] Modern Nheengatu uses awa for any leaf nonetheless.

• Nheengatu: awa

• anonymous author (1622), “Folha de qualquer aruore ou erua [Leaf of any tree or herb]”, in Vocabulario na lingoa Braſilica (overall work in Portuguese), Piratininga; republished as Carlos Drummond, editor, Vocabulário na Língua Brasílica, 2nd edition, volume 2, São Paulo: USP, 1953, page 141: “Çoba [Soba]”
• Anton Meisterburg (a. 1756), “Folha qlq͡r [Any leaf]”, in [Dicionário de Trier] (overall work in Portuguese and Old Tupi), Baixo Xingu; Pará, line çóba. çóva; republished as Jean-Claude Muller et al., editors, Dicionário de língua geral amazônica, Potsdam: University of Potsdam, 2019, →DOI: “soba”

• Navarro, Eduardo de Almeida (2013), “oba”, in Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil [Dictionary of Old Tupi: The Classical Indigenous Language of Brazil] (overall work in Portuguese), São Paulo: Global, →ISBN, page 353, column 1

Inherited from Old Polish oba.

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔba
• Syllabification: o‧ba
• Homophone: -oba

oba (collective oboje)

1. both

   Synonym: obydwa

According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), oba is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 35 times in scientific texts, 47 times in news, 26 times in essays, 48 times in fiction, and 14 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 170 times, making it the 338th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.^[1]

• oba in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• oba in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• Maria Renata Mayenowa; Stanisław Rospond; Witold Taszycki; Stefan Hrabec; Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023), “oba”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
• “OBA”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century], 1 July 2018
• Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814), “oba”, in Słownik języka polskiego
• Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861), “oba”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
• J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1904), “oba”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 3, Warsaw, page 433

Ultimately a natural exclamation. Alternatively, owing to its phonology, likely from an African language (like Kimbundu), in which it might have had a specific meaning, such as “great!” or “wonderful!”, before entering this language as a simple expressive word.

• Hyphenation: o‧ba

oba

1. (colloquial, usually childish) whee; yay (expression of pleasure or enjoyment)

   Synonyms: iúpi, eba

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *oba.

• IPA^(key): /ôba/
• Hyphenation: o‧ba

ȍba (Cyrillic spelling о̏ба)

1. both (for masculine and neuter pairs)

   Synonym: ȍbadvā

• ȍbje/ȍbe (for feminine pairs)
• ȍboje (for mixed pairs)
• obòjica

• obidva

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *oba.

• IPA^(key): [ˈɔba]

oba m inan

1. both

• “oba”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025

oba f

1. feminine singular of obo

From Ottoman Turkish اوبه (“large tent; nomad family”). Cognate with Azerbaijani oba, Turkmen ōba (“village”).

oba (definite accusative obayı, plural obalar)

1. clan, tribe, village

• oba, Nisanyan, Turkish Etymological Dictionary
• *ōpa, *ṓp`V in Starostin, Sergei; Dybo, Anna; Mudrak, Oleg (2003), Etymological dictionary of the Altaic languages (Handbuch der Orientalistik; VIII.8), Leiden, New York, Köln: E.J. Brill

Cognate with Azerbaijani and Turkish oba.

• IPA^(key): /oːˈbɑ/ (nominative)
• IPA^(key): /oːˈbɑː/ (dative)
• Rhymes: -ɑ, -ɑː
• Hyphenation: o‧ba

obā (comparative obarak, superlative iň oba)

1. rural, agricultural

obā (definite accusative obany, plural obālar)

1. village

• “oba” in Webonary.org
• “oba” in Enedilim.com

oba

1. (possessive) (genitive singular of ob) my, of mine

   Synonym: obik

   • 1940, “Pro yunanef Nedänik”, in Volapükagased pro Nedänapükans, pages 30, 37:

     Ziom oba binom bumavan, bumom domis in zif.

     My uncle is an architect, he builds houses in the city.

   • 1931, Arie de Jong, Gramat Volapüka, § 256:

     Blibolös nog boso! jimatan oba okömof onu.

     Please stay for a moment, my wife is coming right away.