List Of English Words Of Arabic Origin (G-J)

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The following English words have been acquired either directly from Arabic or else indirectly by passing from Arabic into other languages and then into English. Most entered one or more of the Romance languages before entering English.

To qualify for this list, a word must be reported in etymology dictionaries as having descended from Arabic. A handful of dictionaries has been used as the source for the list. Words associated with the Islamic religion are omitted; for Islamic words, see Glossary of Islam. Archaic and rare words are also omitted. A bigger listing including many words very rarely seen in English is available at Wiktionary dictionary.

Loanwords listed in alphabetical order

*List of English words of Arabic origin (A-B)
*List of English words of Arabic origin (C-F)
*List of English words of Arabic origin (G-J)
*List of English words of Arabic origin (K-M)
*List of English words of Arabic origin (N-S)
*List of English words of Arabic origin (T-Z)
* List of English words of Arabic origin: Addenda for certain specialist vocabularies

G

; garble : غربل ''gharbal'', to sift. Common in Arabic before year 1000.A number of large dictionaries were written in Arabic during medieval times. Searchable copies of nearly all of the main medieval Arabic dictionaries are online a
Baheth.info
and/o
AlWaraq.net
One of the most esteemed of the dictionaries is Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari's ''"Al-Sihah"'' which is dated around and shortly after year 1000. The biggest is Ibn Manzur's ''"Lisan Al-Arab"'' which is dated 1290 but most of its contents were taken from a variety of earlier sources, including 9th- and 10th-century sources. Often Ibn Manzur names his source then quotes from it. Therefore, if the reader recognizes the name of Ibn Manzur's source, a date considerably earlier than 1290 can often be assigned to what is said. A list giving the year of death of a number of individuals who Ibn Manzur quotes from is i
Lane's ''Arabic-English Lexicon'', volume 1, page xxx
(year 1863). Lane's '' Arabic-English Lexicon'' contains much of the main contents of the medieval Arabic dictionaries in English translation. At AlWaraq.net, in addition to searchable copies of medieval Arabic dictionaries, there are searchable copies of a large number of medieval Arabic texts on various subjects. Early records in European languages are at seaports in Italy and Catalonia. They include Latin ''garbellare'' = "to sift" in year 1191 sifting drugs and resins, Latin = "a sieve for sifting spices" in 1227, Latin ''garbellare'' sifting dyestuffs in 1269, Italian ''gherbellare'' = "to sift spices and drugs" in 1321. They begot English ''garbele'' = "to sift spices" starting 1393. In later-medieval Europe, pepper and ginger and other spice trade items were always imports from the Arabic-speaking Eastern Mediterranean, and the same goes for many botanical drugs (herbal medicines) and a few expensive colorants. The spices, drugs and colorants contained variable amounts of natural chaff residuals and occasionally contained unnatural added chaff. In England among the merchants of these products in late medieval and early post-medieval centuries, garble was a frequent word.In England around year 1400, either in English or in Anglo-Norman French, all of the following words referred to sifting removal of stalks and impurities from spices: garbel, garbelage, garbelen, garbelinge, garbalour, garbelure, garbellable, ungarbled �
''Middle English Dictionary''
For example in an Act of Parliament in 1439 applying to English ports where spices were offered for sale, any spices not "trewly and duely garbelyd and clensyd" were subject to "forfaiture of the said Spiceries so yfound ungarbelyd and unclensyd". Garbled meant that the parts of the spice plant that were not part of the spice were removed. Garble was also used as a noun for the refuse removed by garbling; e.g. in an Act of Parliament in 1603-04: "If any of the said Spices... shall be mixed with any Garbles..." �
ref: NED
The verb Garble has records in England starting from 1393 documented in the ''Middle English Dictionary'' a
ref
an
ref
A Garbler or Garbelour, also 1393, was an official in the City of London who could enter a shop or warehouse to view spices and drugs, and garble them, to check them for compliance with rules against having cheaper stuff mixed in with them. Meanwhile, the early meaning of the English "garbage" (first known record 1422, in London) was the low-grade yet consumable parts of poultry such as the birds' heads, necks and gizzards �
ref: MED
Over the next two centuries "garbage" gradually came to mean the refuse parts of butchered animals �
ref: Lexicons of Early Modern English
In the early 18th century '' Nathan Bailey's English Dictionary'' defined garbage as "the entrails, etc., of cattle", and defined garble as "to cleanse from dross and dirt", and defined garbles as "the dust, soil or filth separated by garbling" �
ref
Nathan Bailey says the parent of garbage is garble (together with the suffi
-age
. Most dictionaries today disagree with Bailey. They say instead the parent of garbage is unknown. The influential ''New English Dictionary on Historical Principles'' (year 1901) says the word garbage is "of obscure origin". To that dictionary's knowledge, however, the earliest record for garbage is 1430 and the earliest for garble is 148
(ref: NED)
which, if it were true, would imply that "garbage" existed in English prior to the arrival of garble. The fact that garble has records from 1393 makes it easier to believe that garbage probably or possibly came from garble. Sifting and culling was word's usual meaning in English until the 19th century and today's meaning grew out from it.

; gauze : قزّ , silk of any kind – this is uncertain as the source for the Western word, but etymology dictionaries are almost unanimous the source is probably from medieval Arabic somehow. The English is from late medieval French ''gaze'', pronounced gazz , ga:z in French, meaning "high-quality lightweight fabric having an aspect of transparency" (very often silk but not necessarily silk). ''Al-qazz'' = "silk" was frequent in medieval Arabic, and it could be relatively easily transferred into the Latin languages because much of the silk of the medieval Latins was imported from Arabic lands. Other propositions involving other Arabic source-words for the French ''gaze'' have also been aired.In medieval Arabic ''al-qazz'' meant "silk" including "silk garment", "silk fabric", "silk yarn", and "raw silk", and it is a common word in medieval Arabic – se
دمقس AND القزّ @ Baheth.info
an
القزّ @ AlWaraq.net
Latin ''Gazzatum'' = "luxurious clothing" is in Latin in 1279 �
Du Cange
In medieval Latin that is a rare word and it looks foreign although the ''-atum'' part of it is a common Latin suffix. The Latin suffix '' -atum'' means "having properties characteristic of". So ''gazzatum'' clothing is clothing having properties of ''gazz'' (whatever ''gazz'' is). French ''gaze'' is pronounced like English gazz. French ''gaze'' has its first record in 1461 as man's robe made of ''gaze'' �
CNRTL.fr
In French in 1483 it is some kind of garment fabric and is spelled ''gaz'' �
DMF
In French in the later 16th century ''gaze'' was "high-quality light-weight fabric having transparency" (example

where Cotgrave's English "tiffany" meant transparent silk). The French ''gaze'' is the parent of English ''gauze'' (1561), Spanish ''gasa'' (1611), German ''Gass'' (1649), German ''Gaze'' (1679), Italian ''garza'' (1704), Catalan ''gasa'' (1736) �
Raja Tazi, year 1998 page 201
Excepting small quantities, silk was not produced in Latin Europe until the 14th century. Instead almost all the silk fabric of the medieval Latins was imported from Byzantine and Arabic lands, pre-14th century; and importing continued in the 14th and 15th centuries �
"Silk in the Medieval World"
by Anna Muthesius in ''The Cambridge History of Western Textiles'' (year 2003). Hence multiple mercantile routes existed by which an Arabic word for silk could have entered Western languages. A change from 'q' to 'g' in going from Arabic ''qazz'' to a Western ''gazz'' has parallels in other Arabic loanwords in the West, which are noted b
Dozy year 1869 page 15Devic year 1876 page 123
an
Lammens year 1890 page xxvii - xxviii
In medieval Arabic there was also الخزّ ''al-khazz'' = "silk fabric; half-silk fabric; fine fabric" and it was a commonly used word – الخزّ @ Baheth.info
الخزّ @ AlWaraq.netLane's ''Lexicon'' page 731
– and an Arabic 'kh' converted to a medieval Latin 'g' has parallels in Algorithm, Magazine, an
Galingale
As a separate idea, some of today's dictionaries report that the late medieval French name ''gaze'' originated from the name of the Middle Eastern coastal town Gaza. This is an old idea which can be found i
Gilles Ménage's ''Dictionnaire Étymologique'' year 1694
But the idea comes without supporting evidence, and comes lacking a fabric definition for the supposed exported fabric, and moreover the historical records are such that "the existence of a textile industry in medieval Gaza is not assured" – CNRTL.fr. In the West the word has had varying sense over time, something it has in common with a number of other fabric names. A common explanation is that the word is derived from the city Gaza.

;gazelle : غزال ''ghazāl'', gazelle. Two species of gazelle are native in the Middle East. The word's earliest known record in the West is in early 12th-century Latin as ''gazela'' in a book about the First Crusade by Albert of Aix.More details a
''CNRTL.fr Etymologie''
in French language. Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales (CNRTL) is a division of the French National Centre for Scientific Research. Another early record is in late 12th-century French as ''gacele'' in a book about the Third Crusade by Ambroise of Normandy. Another is in late 13th-century French as ''gazel'' in a book about the Seventh Crusade by Jean de Joinville.
;gerbil, jerboa, gundi, jird : These are four classes of rodents native to desert or semi-desert environments in North Africa and Asia, and not found natively in Europe. Jerboa is a 17th-century European borrowing of Arabic يربوع ''yarbūʿa'' = "jerboa". Early-19th-century European naturalists created "gerbil" as a Latinate diminutive of the word jerboa. قندي ''qundī'' = gundi, 18th-century European borrowing جرد ''jird'' = jird, 18th-century European borrowing

;ghoul : غول ''ghūl'', ghoul. Ghouls are a well-known part of Arabic folklore. The word's first appearance in the West was in an Arabic-to-French translation of the ''1001 Arabian Nights'' tales in 1712. Its first appearance in English was in a popular novel, '' Vathek, an Arabian Tale'' by William Beckford, in 1786. Ghouls appear in English translations of the ''1001 Arabian Nights'' tales in the 19th century.

; giraffe : زرافة ''zarāfa'', giraffe. The giraffe and its distinctiveness was discussed by medieval Arabic writers including Al-Jahiz (died 868) and Al-Masudi (died 956). The earliest records of the transfer of the Arabic word to the West are in Italian in the second half of the 13th century, a time at which a few giraffes were brought to the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples from a zoo in Cairo, Egypt.

H

; haboob (type of sandstorm) : هبوب ''habūb'', gale wind. The English means a dense, short-lived, desert sandstorm created by an air downburst. Year 1897 first known use in English.

;harem :حريم ''harīm'', women's quarters in a large household. The Arabic root-word means "forbidden" and thus the word had a connotation of a place where men were forbidden. (Crossref Persian and Urdu Zenana for semantics.) 17th-century English entered English through Turkish, where the meaning was closer to what the English is. In Arabic today ''harīm'' means womenkind in general.

; hashish : حشيش ''hashīsh'', hashish. ''Hashīsh'' in Arabic has the literal meaning "dried herb" and "rough grass". It also means hemp grown for textile fiber. Its earliest record as a nickname for cannabis drug is in 12th- or 13th-century Arabic. In English in a traveller's report from Egypt in 1598 it is found in the form "''assis''". The word is rare in English until the 19th century. The wordform in English today dates from the early 19th century.

; henna, alkanet, alkannin, Alkanna : حنّاء ''hinnā'', henna. Henna is a reddish natural dye made from the leaves of ''Lawsonia inermis''. The English dates from about 1600 and came directly from Arabic through English-language travellers reports from the Middle East. Alkanet dye is a reddish natural dye made from the roots of ''Alkanna tinctoria'' and this word is 14th-century English, with a Romance-language diminutive suffix '-et', from medieval Latin ''alcanna'' meaning both "henna" and "alkanet", from Arabic ''al-hinnā'' meaning henna.

; hookah (water pipe for smoking): حقّة ''huqqa'', pot or jar or round container. The word arrived in English from India in the 2nd half of the 18th century meaning hookah. The Indian word was from Persian, and the Persian was from Arabic, but the Arabic source-word did not mean hookah, although the word re-entered Arabic later on meaning hookah.

; hummus (food recipe): حمّص ''himmas'', chickpea(s). Chickpeas in medieval Arabic were called ''himmas'' and were a frequently eaten food item.Boo
''Medieval Arab Cookery: Essays and Translations''
by M. Rodinson, A.J. Arberry and C. Perry, year 2001. In the 19th century in Syria and Lebanon the word was commonly pronounced ''hommos''. This was borrowed into Turkish as ''humus'', and entered English from Turkish in the mid-20th century. The Turkish and English hummus means mashed chickpeas mixed with tahini and certain flavourings. In Arabic that is called ''himmas bil tahina''. See also the list's Addendum for Middle Eastern cuisine words.

J

; jar (food or drink container) : جرّة ''jarra'', an earthenware jar, an upright container made of pottery. First records in English are in 1418 and 1421 as a container for olive oil."Jar" in the ''Middle English Dictionary''
a quote dated 1421
The same dictionary has another quote fo
"Jar" dated 1418
The jars hold olive oil in both of those cases. Jar was rare in English until the 17th century, and the 17th century English jar still had the primary meaning of a large earthenware jar holding imported olive oil (or less often other vegetable oil) used as fuel for oil-lamps. This can be seen from a search for ''jar , jarr , jarre , iar , iarre'' a
''Lexicons of Early Modern English'' (LEME)
More on the early meaning of "Jar" in English is i
''New English Dictionary on Historical Principles''
Documents for Catalan ''jarra'' start in 1233, Spanish ''jarra'' in 1251, Italian in 1280s. Arabic ''jarra'' is commonplace centuries earlier. For the medieval Arabic and Spanish word, and also for the word's early centuries of use in English, the typical jar was considerably bigger than the typical jar in English today.

; jasmine, jessamine, jasmone: ياسمين , jasmine. In medieval Arabic jasmine was well known. The word has an early record in the West in southern Italy in an Arabic-to-Latin book translation about year 1240 that mentions flower-oil extracted from jasmine flowers. In the West, the word was uncommon until the 16th century and the same goes for the plant itself ('' Jasminum officinale'' and its relatives).

;jerboa, jird: ''see gerbil''

; jinn (mythology) : الجنّ ''al-jinn'', the jinn. The roles of jinns and ghouls in Arabic folklore are discussed by e.g. Al-Masudi (died 956). (The semantically related English genie is not derived from jinn, though it has been influenced by it through the ''1001 Nights'' tales).

; julep (type of drink) : جلاب ''julāb'', rose water and a syrupy drink. Arabic was from Persian ''gulab'' = "rose water". In its early use in English it was a syrupy drink."Julep" i
''New English Dictionary on Historical Principles''
Similarly i
''An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language''
by Walter W. Skeat, year 1888. Like the words candy, sugar, and syrup, "julep" arrived in English in late medieval times in association with imports of cane sugar from Arabic-speaking lands. Like syrup, julep's early records in English are mostly in medicine writers.

; jumper (dress or pullover sweater) : جبّة ''jubba'', an outer garment. In Western languages the word is first seen in southern Italy in Latin in 1053 and 1101 as , meaning an expensive garment and made of silk, not otherwise described. Mid-12th-century Latin and late-12th-century French ''jupe'' meant some kind of luxury jacket garment. In English, the 14th-century , 15th-century ''iowpe , jowpe'', 17th-century ''jup'', ''juppe'', and ''jump'', 18th ''jupo'' and ''jump'', 19th ''jump'' and ''jumper'', all meant jacket.

Addendum for words that may or may not be of Arabic ancestry

; garbage : This English word is not found in bygone centuries in French or other languages. The early meaning in English was poultry entrails and its earliest known record in English is 1422. Its parentage is not clear. Some nouns formed by suffixing -age to verbs in late medieval English and not found in French: cartage (1305), leakage (1444 ), steerage (1399 ), stoppage (1465), towage (1327).As documented in th
''Middle English Dictionary'' (the "MED")
Garbage is arguably from English garble = "to sift" (first known record 1393), which clearly came to English through the Romance languages from Arabic ''gharbal'' = "to sift". The forms "garbellage" and "garblage" meaning the garbage or inferior material removed by sifting, are recorded spottily in English from the 14th through 18th centuries and those are clearly from garble.

; genet/genetta (nocturnal mammal) : Seen in 13th-century English, 13th-century French and Catalan, and 12th-century Portuguese. It is absent from medieval Arabic writings.''Glossaire des mots espagnols et portugais dérivés de l'arabe''
by R. Dozy & W.H. Engelmann. 430 pages. Published in 1869. Nevertheless, an oral dialectical Maghrebi Arabic source for the European word has been suggested. جرنيط ''jarnait'' = "genet" is attested in the 19th century in Maghrebi dialect. But the absence of attestation in Arabic in any earlier century must make Arabic origin questionable.

;guitar : The name is ultimately descended from ancient Greek '' kithara'', which was a plucked string musical instrument of the lyre type. Classical and medieval Latin had ''cithara'' as a lyre and more loosely a plucked string instrument. So did the medieval Romance languages. ''Cithara'' was pronounced "sitara". ''Cithara'' is unlikely to be the parent of the French ''quitarre'' (c. 1275), French ''guiterne'' (c. 1280), French (c. 1285), Italian ''chitarra'' (c. 1305; pronounced "kitarra"), and Spanish ''guitarra'' (1330–1343), each meaning a gittern type guitar. The reason it is unlikely: A change from ''ci-'' to any of ''qui- , gui- , ki- , chi-'' has almost no parallel change in form in other words within the Romance languages around that time; i.e., change from sound /s/ to sound /k/ or /g/ is a rarity. Hence the ''qui- , gui- , ki- , chi-'' form (which is essentially all one form) is believed to have been introduced from an external source. A minority of dictionaries report the external source was medieval Greek ''kithára'' = "lyre, and more loosely a plucked string instrument", a common word in medieval Greek records. A majority of dictionaries report the external source was Arabic قيتارة ''qītāra'' , كيثرة ''kaīthara'', with the same meaning as the Greek. An Arabic name of roughly the form ''qītāra , kaīthār'' is extremely rare in medieval Arabic records, which undermines the idea that Arabic was the source. Lute and tanbur on this list are descended from names that are common in medieval Arabic records for guitar-type musical instruments.

; hazard : Medieval French ''hasart , hasard , azard'' had the primary meaning of a game of dice and especially a game of dice where money was gambled. The early records are in northern French and the first is about year 1150 as ''hasart'', with multiple records of ''hasart'' in northern France about year 1200, and Anglo-Norman ''hasart'' is in England before 1216,''Hasart'' in the Anglo-Norman Dictionary
quoting from the text ''Le Petit Plet'' which is dated early 13th century before year 1216. Th
Anglo-Norman Dictionary
also documents from before year 1216 Anglo-Norman ''hasardur'' = "person who plays the hasard dice game", and from circa 1240 Anglo-Norman ''hasardrie'' = "hazardry, i.e. hazarding money in the dice game called hazard". These records underscore that the root-word was well-established in Norman French before it started to show up in Italian (first known record c. 1250) or Spanish (first known record 1283). and Anglo-Norman has ''hasardur'' and ''hasardrie'' at and before 1240, which is followed by Italian ''açar'' about 1250 with the same meaning as ''hasart , hasard'', and Italian-Latin and later in the 13th century, and Spanish ''azar'' starting around 1250, and English ''hasard'' about 1300. According to its etymology summary in a number of today's dictionaries, the French word was descended through Spanish from an unattested Arabic oral dialectical ''az-zār , az-zahr'' = "the dice" – but that is an extremely improbable proposition because that word has no record in Arabic with that meaning until the early 19th century. An alternative proposition, having the advantage of attestation in medieval Arabic, derives it from medieval Arabic يسر ''yasar'' = "playing at dice". Conceivably this might have entered French through the Crusader States of the Levant. The French word is of obscure origin.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arabic Loanwords In English
Lists of English words of Arabic origin