Thursday, March 21, 2019

Made in Arabic-speaking lands

Made in Arabic-speaking lands

An astounding number of English words come either from or through Arabic. Here’s a tiny sampling.

In the 1670s alcove (a vaulted recess) made its way to English from Arabic through Spanish & French. 

Demi-tasse (a small cup of black coffee or the cup in which it is served) came to English from Arabic through French in 1842.

Our English word ghoul comes from an Arabic word meaning evil spirit that robs graves & feeds on corpses. Ghoul showed up in English in 1786. 

In the 1660s, English speakers started using the word yarbuah, which referred to a mouselike rodent of Africa & Asia Minor, called exactly that in Arabic. But in 1849, yarbuah was eclipsed by a version of yarbuah that travelled through Latin & French on its way to English, but still came from the original Arabic word. Thus, we have gerbil.

The first two syllables of Guadalcanal come from an Arabic word meaning river. Guadalcanal first appeared in English in 1568. The first two syllables of Guadalupe came from the same Arabic source in the same year.

In about 1600, English speakers began using the word henna, which came from the Arabic word hinna, the name of the small thorny tree from which henna dye is extracted.

In 1600 the originally Arabic word gazelle arrived in English after a linguistic tour through North Africa, Spain, and France.

Tarragon arrived in English in the 1600s. Though it started out as a Greek word, it came to English through Arabic.

The originally Latin word tuna spent a bunch of time in Arabic & Spanish before making its way into English in 1881. And in other tuna news, the word albacore came through Portuguese from an Arabic word that translates literally to milk-cow (due to the albacore’s substantive size).

The word sofa showed up in English in the 1620s from Arabic through Turkish.

Was any of these words a surprise? I’d love to hear from you.




My thanks go out to this week’s sources, Merriam Webster, Collins Dictionary Etymonline & Wordnik.

2 comments:

  1. I've always thought "gerbil" was an intrinsically funny word. We used to put "Gerbil" into the names of plays to entertain ourselves in the Green Room when I was in the theater. "Gerbil on a Hot Tin Roof" or "A Long Gerbil's Journey Into Night" sent us into hysterics when we were nervously waiting for our cues. Now I see gerbil has funny origins too. Yarbuah doesn't look all that much like "gerbil" but I know linguistics moves in mysterious ways. Fun stuff!

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    1. I love your gerbilesque titles. Gerbilheit 451, Brave New Gerbil, A Mid-gerbil Night's Dream...the possibilities are endless.

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