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 (صِفـــــــــــــــــــــ ـــــر: 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 “العسَّاسيــــــــــــــ ـن”, 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 (فراش.)
- 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 ســـــــــــــــــــــــل ام/SALAAM!)
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