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Sun 18 Apr, 2004 08:21 pm
Hi ,
im doidng a professional writi ng course and have had trouble fifnding any sites with useful nformation about words used in english with a arabic origiin ... all the sites i have found are either too basic or too hard to understand .. alll help would be apreciated
Well, several come to mind: alcohol, algebra, alfalfa, guitar (disputed), magazine, admiral, bizzare and bazzar (same origin), nadir, zero, algorithm . . . but i did not find it easy to come up with anything which was very specific in doing a web search either. I'd advise typing "arabic derivations" into a search engine, and then just doing the heavy labor of picking the examples out of the thousands of hits you'll get.
Also salsa.
A good dictionary will indicate the origin of words. I'd suggest you start with words beginning with "al".
Here's a few links from my search on Google using the key words "Arabic origin words." A short list: admiral, alcohol, algebra, almanac, coffee, cotton, magazine, syrup, and tariff.
A long & detailed list:
Words Borrowed from Arabic
Also see:
SALT Etymology
Quote:Many of the words used by the Arabs in describing science have been retained and have entered the English language. The major contributions of the Islamic culture were in three areas of science: chemistry, mathematics, and astronomy. In chemistry, Arabic words include alcohol, alkali (from al-quali, the saltwork ashes), niter (from which word we get nitrate), alkahest (the universal solvent, sought by the alchemists), and alembic (a distilling flask). In mathematics, some of the Arabic terms are algorithm, algebra, and arithmetic.
Arabic words in English
Arabic words from SpainQuote:The origin of "Coptic", a word which we today use to refer to the Christians of Egypt (and actually, the principle Christian church of Ethiopia, as well others throughout the world related to this form of Christianity), actually is derived from the word Copti. The Arabs who invaded Egypt in, like the Greeks, had problems pronouncing the term, Aegypti, which means "Egyptian citizen". Essentially, they changed the word to Copti. Of course, at that time, Egypt was a Christian nation, so the term became limited to actual Egyptian Christians as the country became more and more Muslim.
Syrup is an interesing one. The Arabs would "pulp" fruit, and then chill it with ice brought from the Zagros mountains. From this, the word "shirop", the concept of which the crusaders brought back to Europe, were derived syrup, sherbet and sorbet.
The
Metaverse website has an excellent list of English words of Arabic origin, as does the
Arab Gateway site. Good luck!
I understand "Bizarre" does not come from Arabic, but from Basque.
Other thing, since Al-Qimia means, literally, "The Chemistry", my educated guess is that the word "Chemistry" is also of Arabic origin.
arabic words used in english
admiral
adobe
alchemy
alcohol
alcove
alembic
alfalfa
algebra
algorithm
alkali
almanac
amalgam
aniline
apricot
arsenal
arsenic
artichoke
assassin
aubergine
azure
barbarian?
bedouin
benzine(?)
Betelgeuse
bint
borax
cable calabash
calibre
caliph
camel
camise
camphor
candy
cane
cannabis
carafe
carat
caraway
carmine
carob
casbah
check
checkmate
cinnabar
cipher
coffee
copt
cotton
crimson
crocus
cumin
damask
dhow dragoman
elixir
emir
fakir
fellah
garble
gauze
gazelle
ghoul
Gibraltar
giraffe
grab
guitar
gypsum
halva
harem
hashish
hazard
henna
hookah
imam
influenza
jar
jasmine
jerboa
jessamine
jinn kafir
khamsin
khan
kismet
kohl
lacquer
lake
lemon
lilac
lime
lute
magazine
mahdi
marabout
marzipan
massacre
massage
mastaba
mate
mattress
mecca
minaret
mizzen
mocha
mohair
monsoon
mosque muezzin
mufti
mullah
mummy
muslim
muslin
myrrh
nabob
nacre
nadir
orange
ottoman
popinjay
racket
safari
saffron
saloop
sash
scallion
senna
sequin
serif
sesame
shackle
sheikh
sherbet
shrub sirocco
sofa
spinach
sudd
sufi
sugar
sultan
sultana
syrup
tabby
talc
talisman
tamarind
tambourine
tarboosh
tare
tariff
tarragon
Trafalgar
typhoon
vega
vizier
wadi
zenith
zero
More about arabic langauge at
http://www.al-bab.com/arab/language/lang.htm
No no this is not my site...so dont delete it within 5 mins.
BYe
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