UCI al aire libre en la azotea de un hospital
B2 Spanish luyện nghe · Tiếng Tây Ban Nha · Phù hợp với người học trung cấp cao
What does “azotea” mean in Spanish?
La azotea is the flat, walkable roof of a building — a rooftop terrace, not just the structure overhead. In warm-climate Spanish cities it’s a genuine living space: somewhere to hang washing, grow plants, throw a party, or escape the heat after dark. The word names a use, not just a surface, which is why it shows up constantly in everyday talk about homes, summer evenings, and city life.
Azotea comes through Spanish from Arabic, like many roof-and-house words: it’s borrowed from Andalusian Arabic as-suṭáyḥa, a diminutive of the root saṭḥ “flat surface, roof” (the initial a-/as- is the Arabic article assimilated before the s-, not a literal “al-”). It also lives on figuratively: estar mal de la azotea — “to be bad in the rooftop” — means to be off your rocker, since the azotea stands in for your head. Here the literal sense rules: Britain’s first open-air ICU sits on the azotea of King’s College Hospital in South London, surrounded by gardens.