gamba

From viola da gamba, ultimately from Italian gamba (“leg”). Doublet of gam, gamb, jamb, and jambe.

gamba (plural gambas) (music)

1. Abbreviation of viola da gamba.
2. A rank of organ pipes, so called for a supposed resemblance of the sound to that of a viola da gamba.

Learned borrowing from Latin gamba (“leg”); compare gambol. Doublet of gam, gamb, jamb, and jambe.

gamba

1. (anatomy) The metacarpus or metatarsus of ruminants, etc.

Alteration of gamble.

gamba (countable and uncountable, plural gambas)

1. (Twitch-speak) Gambling.

   Start a prediction on it. We want gamba!

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈɡam.bə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈɡam.ba]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: gam‧ba

Borrowed from Italian gamba. Doublet of cama.

gamba f (plural gambes)

1. leg

   Synonym: cama

2. shank (any of various birds in the genus Tringa)

• gamba roja
• gamba verda

From Late Latin gambărus, from cammărus, from Ancient Greek κάμμαρος (kámmaros, “lobster”).

gamba f (plural gambes)

1. shrimp

gamba

1. inflection of gambar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “gamba”, 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

• IPA^(key): /ˈɣɑm.baː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: gam‧ba
• Rhymes: -ɑmbaː

Borrowed from Italian viola da gamba, from gamba (“leg”).

gamba f (plural gamba's, diminutive gambaatje n)

1. viola da gamba

   Synonym: knieviool

• gambist

Borrowed from Catalan gamba, Portuguese gamba or French gamba.

gamba f (plural gamba's, diminutive gambaatje n)

1. scampi, prawn

Borrowed from Spanish gamba.

• IPA^(key): /ɡɑ̃.ba/

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

gamba f (plural gambas)

1. large prawn

• Rhymes: -amba
• Hyphenation: gam‧ba

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin gamba (“leg”).

gamba f (plural gambas)

1. leg

   Synonym: perna

Borrowed from Catalan gamba (“shrimp”).

gamba f (plural gambas)

1. shrimp

   Synonym: camarón

• “gamba”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026
• “gamba”, in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (in Galician), 2014–2026
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “gamba”, 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), “gamba”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “gamba”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

gamba

1. water

   yoowarni gamba ― one serving of water

2. wet season
3. year (because years are measured from one wet season to the next)

   yoowarni gamba ― one year

• William B. McGregor, A Functional Grammar of Gooniyandi (1990, →ISBN, page 260

gamba (plural gambas)

1. leg

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

gamba m (genitive singular gamba, nominative plural gambaí)

1. lump, hunk, dollop

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “gamba”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959), “gamba”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “gamba”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026

From Late Latin gamba.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡam.ba/

• Audio (“una gamba”):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -amba
• Hyphenation: gàm‧ba

gamba f (plural gambe, diminutive gambétta or gambìna or gambìno m, augmentative gambóna or gambóne m, pejorative gambàccia, endearing-derogatory gambùccia)

1. leg
2. leg (from knee to ankle), shank
3. leg (of furniture)
4. stroke (of a letter)

• gambetto
• in gamba

• → English: gam; gamba
• → Ido: gambo

• coscia

• gamba in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• camba

From Ancient Greek καμπή (kampḗ, “fixture, bend, winding”)

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɡam.ba]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɡam.ba]

gamba f (genitive gambae); first declension

1. (Late Latin, of animals) hock, shank
2. (Medieval Latin) (upper part of) leg, thigh

First-declension noun.

• Italian: gamba
  • → English: gam; gamba
  • → Ido: gambo
• Old French: jambe, gambe, ganbe
  • Middle French: jambe, gambe
    • French: jambe
    • → Middle English: gambe
      • English: gamb
    • → Middle English: jambe
      • English: jamb
  • Norman: gambe, gaumbe, gàmbe, gãb
  • Picard: gambe
  • Walloon: djambe
• Romanian: gambă
• Sicilian: jamma
• Spanish: gamba

• “gamba”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "gamba", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “gamba”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 703/1.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

gamba f (plural gambas)

1. leg

• “gamba”, in Diccionario Castellano-Leonés / Leonés-Castellano [Spanish-Leonese / Leonese-Spanish Dictionary] (in Spanish), La Asociación L'Alderique, 2012–2026

• Rhymes: -ɐ̃bɐ
• Hyphenation: gam‧ba

From Italian gamba or Vulgar Latin *gambarus, from Latin cammarus, gammarus (“lobster”), from Ancient Greek κάμμαρος (kámmaros).

gamba f (plural gambas)

1. shrimp (decapod crustacean)

   Synonym: camarão

   1. deep-water rose shrimp (Parapenaeus longirostris)
2. (music) viola da gamba
3. (derogatory) ugly old woman

Borrowed from Kimbundu ngamba.

gamba f (plural gambas)

1. (Angola) servant

• “gamba”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “gamba”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “gamba” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913
• “gamba”, in Dicionário inFormal (in Portuguese), 2006–2026
• “gamba”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “gamba”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2026, →ISBN
• “gamba”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• гамба (gamba) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡam.ba/
• Rhymes: -amba
• Hyphenation: gam‧ba

gamba f

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of gambă

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡamba/ [ˈɡãm.ba]

• Audio (Venezuela):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -amba
• Syllabification: gam‧ba

Borrowed from Catalan gamba, from Late Latin *gambarus, from Latin gammarus / cammarus (“lobster”), from Ancient Greek κάμμαρος (kámmaros). Sense 3 comes from the old 100 Chilean pesos banknote having the color of a shrimp.

gamba f (plural gambas)

1. (Spain) shrimp

   Synonym: camarón (Latin America)

2. (Spain, derogatory slang) butterface, prawn
3. (Chile, colloquial) 100 pesos

Borrowed from Italian gamba, from Late Latin^[1] or Vulgar Latin^[2] gamba / camba (“leg”), from Ancient Greek καμπή (kampḗ, “bending”).

gamba f (plural gambas)

1. (Argentina, colloquial) leg

   Synonym: pierna

2. (Chile, colloquial) human foot

   Synonym: pie

• “gamba”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• “gamba”, 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

Inherited from Proto-Bantu [Term?].

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

gamba class V (plural magamba class VI)

1. bark (of a tree)
2. skin (of a scaly animal)
3. scale (of an animal)
4. armor
5. shell

• ngozi

Inherited from Proto-Bantu *-gàmba (“to speak; to answer”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡáːmba/

-gamba (infinitive okugamba)

1. (ambitransitive) to say, to speak
2. (intransitive) to make a noise:
   1. (of a bird) to cry
   2. (of furniture) to creak
   3. (of a drum) to sound
   4. (of a bell) to ring
   5. (of a gun) to go off

• Verbal derivations:
  • Applicative: -gambira
  • Long causative: -gambisa
  • Passive: -gambwa

• Nominal derivations:
  • ekigambo (“word”)
  • engamba (“way of speaking”)
  • omugambi (“speaker”)
  • orugambo (“rumor”)

• Kaji, Shigeki (2007), A Rutooro Vocabulary‎^[1], Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), →ISBN, pages 216, 241–242, 244, 389
• Rubongoya, L. T. (2013), Katondogorozi y'Orunyoro-Rutooro n'Orungereza [Runyoro–Rutooro-English and English-Runyoro–Rutooro dictionary]‎^[2], Kampala: Modrug Publishers, →ISBN, page 104
• Entry 1309 at Bantu Lexical Reconstructions 3