Wikipedia
Alcántara is a municipality in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain, on the Tagus, near Portugal. The toponym is from the Arabic word al-QanTarah (القنطرة) meaning "the bridge".
Alcantara, Alcântara ( Portuguese), Alcántara ( Spanish), Alcàntara, Alcàntera, El-Qantarah and (El) Kantara are all transliterations of the Arabic word al qantara (القنطرة), meaning "the bridge". It can be found not only in Arab countries, but also in the Iberian Peninsula, where the name persisted past the Reconquista, and Latin America, derived from Iberian place names and other places that were under Arab influence in the past.
It may refer to:
(São Pedro de) Alcântara is a civil parish of the city and municipality of Lisbon. Its name is derived from the Arabic (القنطارة), meaning the bridge, and refers to an ancient Roman bridge that once existed there, until the reign of John V. Located in the southwestern corner of Lisbon, along the northern margin of the Tagus River, Alcântara had a population in 2011 of 13,943, in an area of 5.07 km².
The Alcantara ( Sicilian: Alcàntara) is a river in Sicily. It has its source on the south side of Monti Nebrodi and its mouth in the Ionian Sea at Capo Schiso in Giardini-Naxos. The river is long.
The name Alcantara is of Arabic origin ( al-Qanṭarah, 'the Arch') and refers to a bridge from Roman times found by the Arabs. Thucydides called it Akesines Potamos'' while its Latin names were "Assinus'' or Assinos" and "Onobala".Cantera was another hydronym adopted by Normans.
Alcantara is a covering material manufactured and marketed by Alcantara SpA. It is primarily used in the design, fashion, accessories, consumer electronics, automotive and marine industries.
The material was developed in the early 1970s by Miyoshi Okamoto, a scientist working for the Japanese chemical company Toray Industries. It was based on the same technology as another product from the same company named Ultrasuede. Around 1972, a joint venture between Italian chemical company ENI and Toray formed Alcantara SpA in order to manufacture and distribute the material. The company is now owned by Toray and Mitsui.
Alcantara is produced by combining an advanced spinning process (producing very low denier bi-component "islands in the sea" fibre) and chemical and textile production processes (needle punching, buffing, impregnation, extraction, finishing, dyeing, etc.) which interact with each other.
Alcántara ( Spanish), Alcàntara ( Catalan), Alcântara ( Portuguese), and Alcantara ( Sicilian) are surnames, related to the Andalusian place name Alcántara (derived from Arabic for "the bridge").
There are several related place names Alcantara, with the most noted being Alcántara, Spain, the birthplace of Saint Peter of Alcantara, the Franciscan Saint.
The surname has royal connections and the emperors of Brazil, such as Pedro II had the surname Alcántara y Silva. Consequently, the surname Alcántara is also found among freed slaves of the Brazilian household.