madrugada

/madɾuˈɡada/ · B2 · noun · f

early hours of the morning, before dawn

🌄 madrugada = madrugar (to rise early) + -ada; the hours when early risers wake

Madrugada comes from madrugar, to get up early, itself from Latin maturicare, to hasten or ripen (from maturus, early). The -ada ending names the stretch of time: the early hours before sunrise when you would 'get a head start'.

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