jaba

What it means

1. 1.

   A bag — specifically the plastic carrier bag, which in Cuba is a reusable possession rather than something you throw away. The diminutive jabita is at least as common.

2. 2.

   By extension, the contents: traer la jaba is to arrive with the shopping.

Examples with translations

• Llévate una jaba, por si aparece algo en la shopping.

  Take a bag, in case something turns up in the dollar store.

  Note: Going out without one is considered careless, because purchases are opportunistic.

• Me dio una jabita con mangos del patio.

  She gave me a little bag of mangoes from her yard.

Where it comes from

From Taíno, where it named a woven basket or container; the word survived the disappearance of the language it came from and is one of a small set of Indigenous Caribbean words still in daily Cuban use, alongside güiro and batey.