alfile-ria

( alfilería [alfilería] < alfilerillo < alfiler < Arabic al-hhilel 'pin,' plus the diminutive suffix -illo; hence, 'small pin')

    OED: 1868. Acommon forage in the Southwest, also known as pin grass ( Erodium cicu-tarium). According to Cobos, alfilería (also alfilerillo) is used in New Mexican and Southern Colorado Spanish to denote a plant of the Cranesbill family called pinclover. He indicates that the term derives from alfilerillo, which the DRAE defines as an herbaceous plant used as forage in Argentina and Chile. It is likely that the Argentine and Chilean varieties are unrelated to the southwestern alfilaria or alfile-ria, but share the common characteristic of a pinlike shape. No doubt the cowboy distinguished among the various types of forage that cattle would eat, since there was always the danger that they might ingest locoweed or some other poisonous plant.

    Alternate forms: alfilena, alfileria, alfilerilla, filaree, fileree.