camarilla

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish camarilla, from cámara (“chamber”) and the diminutive suffix -illa.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪlə

Noun

camarilla (plural camarillas)

1. A secret, usually sinister, group of conspiring advisors close to the leadership; a cabal.
   • 1990 September 20, Wall Street Journal:

     The same lack of accountability has been even more disastrous for the two state-owned banks, which exist primarily to funnel IMF and World Bank funds to the president and his camarilla in the form of unsecured loans.

   • 2013, Simon Winder, Danubia, Picador, published 2014, page 369:

     The negotiation dripped with bad faith on both sides, with a powerful Austrian camarilla always seeing it as a short-term deal with the Hungarians to be followed by retribution in due course.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish camarilla.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.ma.ʁi.ja/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

camarilla f (plural camarillas)

1. camarilla

Further reading

• “camarilla”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish camarilla.

Noun

camarilla f (plural camarille)

1. camarilla

Further reading

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

Spanish

Etymology

From cámara (“chamber”) +‎ -illa (diminutive suffix).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /kamaˈɾiʝa/ [ka.maˈɾi.ʝa]

• IPA^(key): (most of Spain and Latin America) /kamaˈɾiʝa/ [ka.maˈɾi.ʝa]
• IPA^(key): (rural northern Spain, Andes Mountains, Philippines) /kamaˈɾiʎa/ [ka.maˈɾi.ʎa]
• IPA^(key): (Buenos Aires and environs) /kamaˈɾiʃa/ [ka.maˈɾi.ʃa]
• IPA^(key): (elsewhere in Argentina and Uruguay) /kamaˈɾiʒa/ [ka.maˈɾi.ʒa]

 

• Rhymes: -iʝa

• Rhymes: -iʝa
• Rhymes: -iʎa
• Rhymes: -iʃa
• Rhymes: -iʒa

• Syllabification: ca‧ma‧ri‧lla

Noun

camarilla f (plural camarillas)

1. a secret, usually sinister, group of conspiring advisors close to the leadership; a cabal
   • "El objetivo implícito de esta línea de pensamiento es un mundo de pesadilla en el que el líder, o alguna camarilla gobernante, controla no sólo el futuro sino también el pasado." — George Orwell, «Mirando hacia atrás a la guerra civil española.» (otoño de 1942)

Descendants

• → Catalan: camarilla
• → English: camarilla
• → French: camarilla
• → Italian: camarilla

Further reading

• “camarilla”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28