HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Place name

   The origin of the place name “Miajadas” is not clear. The most extended interpretation affirms that the name of this town comes from the term “Meaxadas”, that would supposedly derive from the Latin term “Medalia”, which means “pieces of land places in the middle”. However, this is an explanation whose foundations are not solid from an etymological point of view. Another version defends that this place name is a variation of the word “majada”, that is to say, the place where cattle and shepherds take shelter.

   Although the primitive spelling is “Meaxadas”, letter “x” was never pronounced /ks/ but /j/. In the sixteenth century, the “Meajadas” spelling appears for the first time in Description and Cosmography of Spain by Hernando Colón. However, the two spellings were equally used in official and local documents when mentioning the town. Over time, the pronunciation developed and the diphthong “Mea” changed into the hiatus “Mia”, resulting in the current spelling “Miajadas”.