Top 50 English Words---of Arabic Origin!

Top 50+ English Words—of Arabic Origin! Posted by Hichem on Feb 21, 2012 in Arabic Language, Culture, Vocabulary

Did you know that words like Adobe and Safari are actually Arabic?

Of course, you already knew of the existence of so-called “loanwords” in English, meaning words which are originally French, German, Spanish, etc.

But were you actually aware that several of them also come from ARABIC?

IN SCIENCE AND MATH:

ALCHEMY and CHEMISTRY (الكيميـــــــــاء.)

ALCOHOL (الكُحُـــــــــول.)

ALGEBRA (الجبــر: More on the eponymous founder of Algebra as an independent mathematical discipline here.)

ALGORITHM (خوارزم: More on the eponymous founder of algorthimics here.)

ALKALINE (القلوي: Meaning “non-acid, basic.”)

ALMANAC (المنــــــاخ: Literally meaning “climate”)

AVERAGE (From Old French avarie, itself from the Arabic term عوارية, meaning “damaged goods”, from عور meaning “to lose an eye.”)

AZIMUTH (السمــــــــت: This concept is used in several fields, such as الفلك/astronomy، هندسة الطيران/aerospace engineering، and فيزياء الكم/quantum physics.)

CIPHER (صِفـــــــــــــــــــــــــــر: The term “cipher” is now mostly applied in cryptography—see الكَندي/Al-Kindi’s work.)

ELIXIR (الإكسيــــــــــــــر: Something like a “syrup”—also an Arabic term, possibly borrowed from Persian.)

NADIR (نظيـــــــــــــر: It is the opposite of the zenith.)

SODA (صـــــــــودا.)

ZENITH (سمت الرأس: Literally the “azimuth of the head”، it is the opposite of the “nadir.”)

ZERO (same as “cipher.”)

Names of many stars and constellations:

(Altair: الطَّائـــــــــر meaning “the bird”; Betelgeuse: بيت الجــــــوزاء, meaning “the House of the Gemini”; Deneb: ذنب meaning “tail”; Fomalhaut: فم الحوت which means “the mouth of the Pisces”, Rigel: رِجـــــــل meaning “foot”, it stands for رجل الجبَّار, or the “foot of the Titan”, Vega: الواقع meaning “the Falling”, refers to النسر الواقع، meaning “the falling eagle”, etc.)

An entirely separate post is necessary to list all of the astronomical terms which are of Arabic origin.

TECHNICAL TERMS (ENGINEERING, MILITARY, BUSINESS, COMMODITIES, etc.)

ADMIRAL (أميــــــــر الرحلة, meaning commander of the fleet, or literally “of the trip”)

ADOBE (الطوب: meaning a “brick.” Next time you use an Adobe Acrobat product, you will remember that Adobe is originally Arabic!)

ALCOVE (القبة: meaning “the vault”, or “the dome”)

AMBER (عنبر: Anbar, “ambergris.”)

ARSENAL (Do fans of F.C. Arsenal today, including those living in the Arab world, know where the name of their favorite team came from? دار الصناعــــــــــــــــة : “manufacturing house”)

ASSASSIN (Just like the word MAFIA, it is of Arabic origin: It either comes from “حشَّــــــــــــــاشين”, referring to the medieval sect of the same name famous for the heavy hashish consumption by its knife-wielding members, or “العسَّاسيــــــــــــــــن”, meaning “the watchmen.”)

CALIBER (قـــــــالب: meaning “mold”)

CANDY (from قندي, itself from Persian for “hard candy made by boiling cane sugar”)

CHECK (from صکّ, also from Persian meaning “letter of credit.” It would give the Chess expression “Checkmate”, from “الشيخ مات”, or “the Shaikh is dead.”)

CORK (القورق)

COFFEE (قهوة: For long snubbed by Europeans as the “wine of the infidels”—that is, many centuries before the age of Starbucks and instant coffee!)

COTTON (قُطْـــــــــن)

GAUZE (either from قَــــــــــزّ, meaning “silk”, or from غَــــــــزّة, “Gaza”, the Palestinian city.)

GUITAR (just as LUTE, العود, a musical instrument known to Europeans through the Arabic قيثارة, itself possibly borrowed from a word of Ancient Greek.)

HAZARD (الزّهر: “the dice”—Think of an Arabic TV series hazardly titled “The Dukes of Al-Azhar”…)

LAZULI (As in “Lapis Lazuli”, لاژورد: Arabic word for a semi-precious stone famous for its intense blue color. The Arabic word is said to come from a Persian city where the stone was mined.)

MASCARA (Just as with the English “masquerade” and the French “mascarade“, mascara comes from the Arabic word مسخرة, an event during which people wear masks, such as carnivals.)

MATTRESS (مطـــــــــــــــــــرح.)

MONSOON (موسم: Arabic for “season.”)

MUMMY (مومياء: Originally from Persian root “موم”, meaning “wax”.)

RACQUET (As in a “tennis racket”. Some point to an Arabic origin of Tennis. The word racket comes the Arabic word “راحـــــــة”, as in “راحـــــة اليد”, meaning the “palm of the hand.”)

REAM (as in a “ream of paper”, it comes from Arabic رزمة, meaning a “bundle.”)

SAFARI (سفـــــــر: “travel”—As in Apple’s Safari web browser)

SASH (شــــــــاش.)

SATIN (زيتــــــــــــوني: “Olive-like”, perhaps related to modern Tsinkiang in Fukien province, southern China.)

SOFA (الصُفــــــــة)

TALCUM (التلك)

SWAHILI (Comes from سواحــــــــــل: Plural of ساحــــــــــل, meaning a “coast.”)

ZIRCON (زرقـــــــــــــون: “golden-colored.” Zirconium is a chemical element with the symbol Zr and atomic number 40)

TARIFF (تعاريـــــــــــــــف, plural of تعريـــــــــــــــفة, meaning a “fee”, or simply تعريـــــــــــــــف, as in “بطاقــــــــة التعريـــــــــــــــف“, meaning an “identity card.”)

Finally, to close this list, it is fitting to greet everyone by saying “SO-LONG” (an English expression which, according to The Penguin Dictionary of Historical Slang, may come from the Arabic word ســـــــــــــــــــــــلام/SALAAM!)

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Comments:

Shocked girl:

I was studying at EF school and we studied about some english words that originated from other languages . They mentioned most of these words and they’re obvious from Arabs. But they mentioned that the word guitar is Indian, the word safari is African. Common people! are they stupid. Or they tryin to erases the Arabic language. They teach those worlds at all English schools in USA but they tell them those words are originated from India, Africa and other languages, but they’ve never mentioned arabia. They’ve never mentioned those words are originally Arabic words. I will never stop. I will never let these kind of people erase our language and relate it to other languages. Distribute all these words and their originate to let people know those words are originally Arabic .
- hamed:
  
  @Shocked girl yes. you have the right to defend your mother language. yet there are much more engish words borrowed from arabic, such as corner, magazine, cover, zero, and many others. thx
Cali:

you are a nice girl shokedGirl, when i tell that words to American English speakers they say oh its Latin, and i ask them, which is oldest, Arabic or Latin?
and that does help to prove that Arabic is the mother language .
linguist:

Cali, do not get carried away. We do not know what language was the mother of all languages – if there is one.
alSSalem:

Nice list, although you forgot the word Haboob.

Arab conquests had a lot of influence in Europe as they resided 800 years in Spain and about 200 in Sicily (Siqilia in Arabic) that is why southern Italy people are darker than the north.
The conquest was for a long period of time, centuries. From Spain spreads to North Africa (The Moors as they are called today) all the way to India.
Precious Science, Mathematics and Language was used from the Arabs.
Too bad most people stick to wrong beliefs without research, If they only read more on history they will find out. The media has a strong effect.
Thank you all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquests
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Islam_in_southern_Italy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus
- Basel:
  
  @alSSalem the fact that Arabic is older than Latin means Cali’s point is correct based on historical facts and not because she was carried away, and second, what do you mean by “we don’t know” … this is a generic expression that means nothing … speak for yourself man.
zizou:

merci
- Al hubab:
  
  @zizou Not true. DNA test show no signifigant arabic influence in Sicilians. Mainly Greek and indo european with african and arabic/semitic dna other under 1%. Sicilians are darker because its sunnier there! Why are 13 historic occupiers/invadors still trying to tell sickels who they are??? The only real link is the landmass which is part of the African continent but the DNA is Indo European!
zizou:

Cali, do not get carried away. We do not know what language was the mother of all languages – if there is one.
zizou:

Nice list, although you forgot the word Haboob.
Arab conquests had a lot of influence in Europe as they resided 800 years in Spain and about 200 in Sicily (Siqilia in Arabic) that is why southern Italy people are darker than the north.
The conquest was for a long period of time, centuries. From Spain spreads to North Africa (The Moors as they are called today) all the way to India.
Precious Science, Mathematics and Language was used from the Arabs.
Too bad most people stick to wrong beliefs without research, If they only read more on history they will find out. The media has a strong effect.
Thank you all
Seanwal111111:

Most of what’s reported by Hichem in the post above is correct. But a large minority of it is FALSE. In particlar, the words Caliber, Cork, and Guitar are NOT from Arabic. The words Almanac, Soda, Hazard, Mascara, Racquet, Satin, and Zircon may or may not be from Arabic — each word is of obscure origin and the Arabic-origin idea comes without sufficient good evidence in each case. Hichem has taken the information directly or indirectly from a dictionary that doesn’t provide any evidence. If you delve into the actual supporting evidence, you’ll find the evidence is not there at all, or else not there sufficiently and convincingly, for a large minority of the words. See http://EnglishWordsOfArabicAncestry.wordpress.com
mimi:

@ Shocked girl, They are not stupid, they know what they are doing. It is just to erase anything that suggest that any achievement, discovery or concept comes from Arabic language and Arab people and to establish an image that Arabs are only Barbaric people that they did nothing, but don’t worry,real educated people know the Arab civilizations and their cultural and scientific contribution to the whole world. then pls know that Arabic doesn’t necessairly related to (Arabia), It is a language that dates back to more than 8000 years BC, and it was the language of people that lived in the whole area of the middle east including Syria and Iraq and the whole area, not to mention that the first alphabet was their achievment, but because Arabs know nothing about their history, they let such people manipulate and deform history, Salam :).
mimi:

@ Seanwal11111, Oh my God, Guitar is not form Arabic origins, how could Spain ever known the guitar if it wasn’t for the Ommayads Arabs, it is from the word (guitarra) which obviously sounds like Alquithara (القيثارة) which was introduced to them by Arabs, this fact is recognised by them, pls search using trustworthy resourses that is objective and render real history, then for (Almanac), Is there any person in the whole world doesn’t know that words begining with (AL) are Arabic, western children know that, please it is Almanakh, you can look up its definition,and for the other words, please be objective! Regards
the truth:

I’M SORRY , I don’t blame the American tutors for telling their students that those words are from American origins, because also arabic teachers do the same or more than that, it’s not just about words,but also about the History itself; they coast shadow on other civilizations like Amazigh that known as the indeginous poeple of north Africa.So comparing between “stilling Words origin and “stilling” History; there is a big different.
Abd Al-Rahman:

Please note that:
Story came from إسطورة
Cave came from كهف
Noble came from نبيل
Sugar came from سكر
Rice came from رز
Hurry came from هرع
Coffin came from كفن
Giraffe came from زرافة
Earth came from أرض
Justice came from قسط
Thank you all for reading…
Marissa:

I was wondering why southern italians look darker than northern italians in Italy. The italians were originally blonde hair and blue eyes people. I was surprised the italians created the mafia because of arabian invaders. I could be wrong.
Ab:

The solid fact is that Arabic was the language of science and sophistication for centuries in the Middle Ages as English is now and German was for a short while ..
Anotherview:

As one who is a native English speaker, let me comment that those English speakers who ascribe words like Swahili, alcohol or algebra to languages other than Arabic are almost always not doing it because of any desire to deny anything to Arabic, but rather out of ignorance. Arabic is not acessable to most native English speakers. The alphabet is incomprehensible to them without much study, and unlike seeing a foreign word–say in German– which is written in the same alphabet as English and thus permits at least a guess at pronunciation, Arabic is as hidden from them as if it were encrypted! To some extent, this is also true of other languages using different scripts, such as Russian, Hebrew, Farsi and so on.
Most of us know “Swahili” is the language spoken in the east coast countries of Africa, such as Kenya and Tanzania, and a few can say things like “Habari gani”, but fewer still know the whole language is based on Arabic. The name of the language itself is Arabic for Coast, which is where it is spoken. Swahili is usually written in a Roman alphabet, so the Arabic Connection never occurs to them. There is no plot here against Arabia: only ignorance.
A little ignorance explains a lot, and creates many misunderstandings. We all need to remember that everyone is born ignorant, but only a few get over it!
Fouzi Lab:

Walt Taylor: Etymological list of Arabic words in English.
Izri:

Arabic was THE language of science for ONE 1000 years. The Muslim empire ruled the world for a 1000 years. And Arabic was the language of the Muslim Empire when it came to science and institutes. Europeans used to go to the east to study. And when they came back, they bragged to their people about their newly learned Arabic language.
mitris:

nice very nice explanation for the origin of these words. Latin is not the problem. The real question is if its (Gr)Hellenic or not or If is Aramean.Kiθaρa, Kithara etc….
A favor : next to Arab characters, please Latinize the accent, Sound of the word, for us who understand little bit Arabic but we can not read. Thank you.
Unknown:

Hi there,

You forgot the most important word and you listed only things that no one wants to know.

Earth = أرض
Jany Krishh:

Tamil is the mother of all language I say.

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