ramada

(rə-mä'də)

1. 1. An open or semienclosed shelter roofed with brush or branches, designed especially to provide shade.
   2. An open porch or breezeway.
2. An arbor or trellis made of twined branches.

[Spanish, from rama, branch, from Vulgar Latin *rāma, from Latin rāmus. See ramify.]

REGIONAL NOTE   One of the words Spanish contributed to the English of the American Southwest is ramada, a term for an open shelter roofed with brush or branches, and by extension, an open porch or breezeway. Ramada can also mean an arbor of twined branches; this sense illustrates the derivation of the word from Spanish rama, meaning "branch," hence ramada, "arbor, mass of branches." The suffix -ada in Spanish denotes "a place characterized by (something)." Ramada might have remained a relatively obscure regional word were it not for its adoption in the name of a national chain of motels.