A variant spelling of djellaba, a loose, hooded garment traditional to North Africa and the Middle East.
From Arabic 'jilbāb,' with the spelling 'djellab' representing another European transliteration variant. This particular spelling was common in French colonial texts and documentation.
The word 'djellaba' traveled into European languages through direct contact with North African cultures—you can track colonialism's history through how each nation spelled it, from French 'djellaba' to Spanish 'djellaba' to English 'jellaba,' showing how languages compete to define borrowed words.
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