playa

English

Etymology 1

From Spanish playa (“beach”). Doublet of plage.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈplaɪə/
• Rhymes: -aɪə

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:

playa

Wikipedia

playa (plural playas)

1. (geology, US) A level area which habitually fills with water that evaporates entirely.
   • 2020, Diane Cook, The New Wilderness, Oneworld Publications, page 66:

     Beyond the valley below lay a playa, a vast dried-white lake bed, its ends reaching farther than they could see.

   • 2023 September 3, Michael Sainato, “Officials investigate death at Burning Man as thousands stranded by floods”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     “We are also deploying buses to Gerlach to take people to Reno who might walk off the playa. See our recommendations on when walking is viable or not. This is not likely a 24-hour operation at this time.”

Hyponyms

• salt flat, salt pan, alkali flat

Derived terms

• playa lake

Etymology 2

From a non-rhotic pronunciation of player

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpleɪə/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪə

Noun

playa (plural playas)

1. (African-American Vernacular, slang) A dude (an informal term of address or general term to describe a person, typically male).
2. (African-American Vernacular, slang) A player (someone who plays the field, or has prowess in gaining romantic and sexual relationships).
   • 2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 27:

     What Pimp was asking me to do was crazy. Off the fuckin' chain. Insane. He was scheming to stick up T.C. and Miss Lady's pool hall so we could pay off G, but a playa like me was getting ready to go to college and put all that two-bit robbing and stealing shit behind me.

   • 2012, Zadie Smith, NW, London: Penguin Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 151:

     In the end, all the things Grace claimed to like about Marlon—that he was not a ‘playa’, that he was gentle and awkward and not interested in money—were all the reasons she left him.

Aragonese

Etymology

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

Noun

playa f (plural playas)

1. beach

References

• Bal Palazios, Santiago (2002), “playa”, in Dizionario breu de a luenga aragonesa, Zaragoza, →ISBN

Asturian

Noun

playa f (plural playes)

1. fishing ground
2. small valley, fertile valley

Papiamentu

Etymology

From Spanish playa.

Noun

playa

1. beach
2. "the town" (in Aruba)

Spanish

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:

playa

Wikipedia ^es

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ˈplaʝa/ [ˈpla.ʝa]

• IPA^(key): /ˈplaʝa/ [ˈpla.ʝa] (everywhere but Argentina and Uruguay)
• IPA^(key): /ˈplaʃa/ [ˈpla.ʃa] (Buenos Aires and environs)
• IPA^(key): /ˈplaʒa/ [ˈpla.ʒa] (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay)

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʝa
• Syllabification: pla‧ya

Etymology 1

Inherited from Late Latin plagia, from Latin plaga. Compare Portuguese praia, French plage, Italian spiaggia.

Noun

playa f (plural playas)

1. beach
   • 1989, “Aquí no hay playa”, performed by The Refrescos:

     Afirmaréis seguros que es la capital de España / Pero al llegar agosto, ¡vaya, vaya! / Aquí no hay playa

     You will surely affirm that it is the capital of Spain / But when August arrives, wow, wow! / There is no beach here

2. car park

Derived terms

• alacrancillo de playa
• balón de playa
• júcaro de playa
• pelota de playa
• playero
• uva de playa
• verdolaga de playa
• voleibol de playa
• vóley playa

Descendants

• ⇒ Cebuano: aplaya
• → English: playa
• → Papiamentu: playa
• ⇒ Tagalog: aplaya

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Adjective

playa

1. feminine singular of playo

Further reading

• “playa”, 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
• “playa”, 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

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish playa.

Noun

playa c

1. a (large) beach (at a southern holiday destination)

Declension

Declension of playa

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	playa	playas
	definite	playan	playans
plural	indefinite	playor	playors
	definite	playorna	playornas

See also

• badlakan
• badstrand
• parasoll
• sand
• solkräm

References

• playa in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• playa in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)