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__NOTOC__ 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 The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
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 The following list consists of notable concepts that are derived from Islamic and associated cultural (Arab, Persian, Turkish) traditions, which are expressed as words in Arabic or Persian language. The main purpose of this list is to disambig ...
. 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) __NOTOC__ 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. ...
*
List of English words of Arabic origin (C-F) __NOTOC__ 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. ...
*
List of English words of Arabic origin (G-J) __NOTOC__ 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. ...
*
List of English words of Arabic origin (K-M) __NOTOC__ 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. ...
*
List of English words of Arabic origin (N-S) __NOTOC__ 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. ...
*List of English words of Arabic origin (T-Z) * List of English words of Arabic origin: Addenda for certain specialist vocabularies


T

; tabla (percussion instrument in music of India) : طبل ''tabl'', drum. English tabla is from Hindi/Urdu ''tabla'', which is from Persian ''tabla'' = "small drum", Persian ''tabl'' = "drum", and Arabic ''tabl''. The Persian is from the Arabic. ''Tabl'' in Arabic has been the usual word for drum (noun and verb) since the beginning of written records. ;
tahini Tahini () or tahina (, ) is a Middle Eastern condiment made from toasted ground hulled sesame. It is served by itself (as a dip) or as a major ingredient in hummus, baba ghanoush, and halva. Tahini is used in the cuisines of the Levant and E ...
: طحينة ''tahīna'', tahini. Derives from the Arabic verb for "grind" and is related to ''tahīn'' = "flour". The written Arabic ''tahīna'' is pronounced "taheeny" in
Levantine Arabic Levantine Arabic, also called Shami (autonym: or ), is a group of mutually intelligible vernacular Arabic varieties spoken in the Levant, in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Turkey (historically in Adana, Mersin and Hatay on ...
. The word entered English directly from Levantine Arabic around year 1900, although tahini was rarely eaten in English-speaking countries until around 1970
Definition of tahini , Dictionary.com
;
talc Talc, or talcum, is a Clay minerals, clay mineral, composed of hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula Mg3Si4O10(OH)2. Talc in powdered form, often combined with corn starch, is used as baby powder. This mineral is used as a thi ...
: طلق ',
mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...
and talc. Common in medieval Arabic. Documented in Latin alchemy from around 1200 onward, meaning mica and talc. Uncommon in the Latinate languages until the later 16th century. In all European languages today
Definition of talc , Dictionary.com
;
talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...
: طلسم ''tilsam , tilasm'', talisman. The Arabic came from
Late Greek Late Greek refers to writings in the Greek language in Late Antiquity and the Early Byzantine period; and in other words, from about the late 2nd century AD until about the late 7th century AD.See the definitions of "Late Greek" aDictionary.comanT ...
''telesma'' = "consecration rite". Medievally in Arabic and Syriac it was used in the sense of "incantation" sometimes. Al-Masudi (died 956) and Ibn al-Awwam (died c. 1200) are examples of Arabic writers who used the word in the sense of an astrology-based talisman. An 11th-century, 400-page Arabic book about occult magic, astrology and talismans, the book entitled the '' Ghāyat al-Hakīm'', uses the word about 200 times in the sense of a talisman, meaning an image with talismanic powers created through the guidance of astrology. The word entered astrology in the West with this meaning in the early 17th century, beginning in French. Early users in French said the word came from Arabic
Definition of talisman , Dictionary.com
;
tamarind Tamarind (''Tamarindus indica'') is a Legume, leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is probably indigenous to tropical Africa. The genus ''Tamarindus'' is monotypic taxon, monotypic, meaning that it contains only this species. It belongs ...
: تمر هندي ''tamr hindī'' (literally: "Indian date"), tamarind. Tamarinds were in use in ancient India. They were not known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. They entered medieval Latin medical practice from Arabic. In English the early records are in translations of Latin medical texts. Tamarind's medieval medical uses were various
Definition of tamarind , Dictionary.com
;
tanbur The term ''Tanbur'' ( fa, تنبور, ) can refer to various long-necked string instruments originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', "terminology presents a compli ...
, tanbura,
tambur The ''tambur'' (spelled in keeping with TDK conventions) is a fretted string instrument of Turkey and the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. Like the ney, the armudi (lit. pear-shaped) kemençe and the kudüm, it constitutes one of the four in ...
, tambura,
tambouras The tambouras ( el, ταμπουράς ) is a Greek traditional string instrument of Byzantine origin. It has existed since at least the 10th century, when it was known in Assyria and Egypt. At that time, it might have between two and six strings ...
,
tamburica Tamburica ( or ) or tamboura ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", tamburica, тамбурица, little tamboura; hu, tambura; el, Ταμπουράς, Tampourás; sometimes written tamburrizza or tamburitza), refers to a family of long-necked lute ...
,
tembûr Kurdish tanbur ( ku, ته‌مبوور, translit=Tembûr) or tanbour a fretted string instrument, is an initial and main form of the tanbūr instrument family, used by the Kurds. It is highly associated with the Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq) religion in ...
: These are all long-necked plucked string musical instruments. From Arabic طنبور ''ṭunbūr'' (also ''ṭanbūr''), long-necked plucked string instrument. The word occurs early and often in medieval Arabic. It was also in use in Early Medieval Aramaic. The English tambourine, a percussive instrument, is without any documentary evidence that would etymologically relate it. Likewise tambour = "drum" is either unrelated to tambur = "string instrument" or else the relation is poorly understood
Definition of tamboura , Dictionary.com
;
tangerine The tangerine is a type of citrus fruit that is orange in color. Its scientific name varies. It has been treated as a separate species under the name ''Citrus tangerina'' or ''Citrus'' × ''tangerina'', or treated as a variety of ''Citrus retic ...
: طنجة ''Tanja'', city and port of
Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
in Morocco. Tangerine oranges or mandarin oranges were not introduced to the Mediterranean region until the early 19th century.''Origin of Cultivated Plants''
by Alphonse de Candolle, year 1885, pages 183–188 for orange, page 188 for mandarin orange
"Études sur les noms arabes des végétaux: l'oranger et ses congénères"
by J.J. Clément-Mullet in ''Journal Asiatique'' sixième série Tome XV, pages 17 to 41, year 1870.
The English word "tangerine" arose in the UK in the early 1840s from shipments of tangerine oranges from Tangier. The word origin was in the UK. The Arabic name for a tangerine is unrelated. The city existed in pre-Arabic times named "Tingi"
Definition of tangerine , Dictionary.com
; tare (weight) : طرح ''tarh'' , طرحة ''tarha'', a discard (something discarded; from root ''tarah'', to throw). Medieval Arabic ''tarh , tarha'' was also used meaning "a deduction, a subtraction". The tare weight is defined in English as the weight of a package that's empty. To get the net weight of goods in a package, you weigh the goods in their package, which is the gross weight, and then discard the tare weight. Catalan ''tara'' dates from 1271, French ''tare'' 1311, Italian ''tara'' 1332,More details a
''CNRTL.fr Etymologie''
in French language. This site is a division of the
French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...
.
England ''tare'' 1380. The word has a record in Spanish around 1400 in the form ''atara'', which helps affirm Arabic ancestry because the leading 'a' in ''atara'' represents the Arabic definite article. It is spelled ''tara'' in today's Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian
Definition of tare , Dictionary.com
;
tariff A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and poli ...
: تعريف ''taʿrīf'', notification, specification (from ''ʿarraf'', to notify). The word was widely used in medieval Arabic and meant any kind of notification or specification.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 Abu Nasr Isma'il ibn Hammad al-Jawhari () also spelled al-Jauhari (died 1002 or 1008) was a medieval Turkic lexicographer and the author of a notable Arabic dictionary ''al-Ṣiḥāḥ fī al-lughah'' (). Life He was born in the city of Farab (Ot ...
's ''"Al-Sihah"'' which is dated around and shortly after year 1000. The biggest is
Ibn Manzur Muhammad ibn Mukarram ibn Alī ibn Ahmad ibn Manzūr al-Ansārī al-Ifrīqī al-Misrī al-Khazrajī () also known as Ibn Manẓūr () (June–July 1233 – December 1311/January 1312) was an Arab lexicographer of the Arabic language and author of ...
'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.
Among the Latins the word starts in late medieval commerce on the Mediterranean Sea where it meant a tabular statement of inventory on a merchant ship (bill of lading) or any tabular statement of products and prices offered for sale. In use by Italian and Catalan merchants in the 14th century. Entered French and English in the 16th as a tabular statement. In Spanish the word is absent or very rare before the late 17th. From the meaning of a tabular statement of import tax liabilities on different goods, the meaning of an import tax grew out by
metonymy Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept. Etymology The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...

Definition of tariff , Dictionary.com
; tarragon (herb) : طرخون ''tarkhūn'', tarragon. The word with that meaning was used by Ibn Al-Baitar (died 1248), who gives a description of the plant and mentions both culinary and medical uses. ''Tarkhūn'' comes up in a medical context in Al-Razi (died circa 930), and in a culinary context in Ibn al-Awwam (died circa 1200).Ibn al-Baitar's 13th century ''Book of Simple Medicaments and Foods'' is onlin
in Arabic (5 megabytes; PDF)
(''tarkhūn'' on page 558), an
in German translation
(year 1842, ''tarkhūn'' in volume 2-page 156). The book was compiled in the 1240s. It says طرخون ''tarkhūn'' is a herb that grows to a height of between a handspan and a forearm tall, has long narrow delicate leaves, and has "camphor-like" aromatic qualities, and the leaves can be dined on at table mixed with
mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaA ...
and other herbs, but when chewed in quantity it causes a numbing effect in the mouth. Ibn al-Baitar gives excerpts from ten medieval Arabic commentators about the plant. The commentators are not totally consistent with each other in what they have to say, and some of them are exclusively interested in the medical utility of the numbing effect. Ibn Al-Baitar himself says ''tarkhūn'' is "a herb well-known among the people of the Levant". More than three centuries later, in the 1570s, a German visitor to the Levant, the physician and botanist Leonhard Rauwolff, observed that the local inhabitants of Lebanon used tarragon culinarily and they called it ''"Tarchon"''
''Der Raiß inn die Morgenländer'', year 1582 page 24
Ibn al-Awwam in 12th century southern Iberia has طرخون ''tarkhūn'' listed together with mint, chicory-endive, rocket (arugula), basil, parsley, chard, and a few other small leafy plants of an ordinary vegetable garden
Ref
In later-medieval Latin (late 12th century onward) it comes up in a medicine context spelled ''altarcon'', ''tarchon'' and ' and was acknowledged at the time to be from Arabic. Until then in Latin there is no record of the plant under any name, or at least no clear record. Records for Italian ''tarcone , targone'', French ''targon , tragon'', Spanish ''taragoncia , traguncia'', English ''tarragon'' and German ''Tragon'' all start in the 16th century and all are in a culinary context
Definition of tarragon , Dictionary.com
; tazza (cup), demi-tasse : طسّ ''tass'' , طاسة ''tāsa'' , طسّة ''tassa'', round shallow cup or bowl, which was made of metal, typically made of brass. The word has been in all the western Latinate languages since the 13th and 14th centuries. Medievally the Latinate ''tasse , taza , taça'' (''ç'' = z) was very often made of silver and was in the luxury category. The word was common in Arabic for many centuries before it shows up in the Latinate languages. English had it a
''tass''
in the 16th century, which continued much later in colloquial use in Scotland, but today's English tazza and demitasse came from Italian and French in the 19th century
Definition of tazza , Dictionary.com
;
tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max length: ...
: التنّ ''al-tunn'', tunafish. The standard etymology report is: Ancient Greek and classical Latin ''thunnus'' = "tunafish" -> medieval Arabic ''al-tunn'' (or ''al-tūn'') -> medieval Spanish ''atún'' -> colloquial American Spanish ''tuna'' -> late 19th century California ''tuna'' -> international English. Note: Modern Italian ''tonno'', French ''thon'', and English ''tunny'', each meaning tuna, are descended from the classical Latin without an Arabic intermediary. Note:
Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...
(died 636, lived in southern Spain) spelled it ''thynnus'' in Latin, where the Latin letter 'y' in Isidore's case was likely pronounced "eu", roughly like in British "tuna", which was roughly how the letter 'y' was pronounced in classical Latin. Note: The word was common in ancient Greek and Latin; and common in late medieval Spanish; but a rarity in medieval Arabic, and it is not listed in medieval Arabic dictionaries
Definition of tuna , Dictionary.com
The
Albacore The albacore (''Thunnus alalunga''), known also as the longfin tuna, is a species of tuna of the order Perciformes. It is found in temperate and tropical waters across the globe in the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones. There are six distinct sto ...
species of tunafish got its name from 16th century Spanish & Portuguese ''albacora'', which might be from Arabic, although there is no clear precedent in Arabic
Definition of albacore , Dictionary.com
In the tuna family the
Bonito Bonitos are a tribe of medium-sized, ray-finned predatory fish in the family Scombridae – a family it shares with the mackerel, tuna, and Spanish mackerel tribes, and also the butterfly kingfish. Also called the tribe Sardini, it consists of ...
is another commercial fish species whose name comes from Spanish. The name is in late medieval Spanish, and it might have got there from Arabic, or might not
Definition of bonito , Dictionary.com
;
typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...
: ''see
Monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...
''


V

; varanoid (in lizard taxonomy), ''Varanus'' (lizard genus) : ورل ''waral'' and locally in North Africa ورن ''waran'', varanoid lizard, including ''
Varanus griseus The desert monitor (''Varanus griseus'') is a species of monitor lizard of the order Squamata found living throughout North Africa and Central and South Asia. The desert monitor is carnivorous, feeding on a wide range of vertebrates and inverteb ...
'' and ''
Varanus niloticus The Nile monitor (''Varanus niloticus'') is a large member of the monitor family (Varanidae) found throughout most of Sub-Saharan Africa and along the Nile, with invasive populations in North America. The population in West African forests and sa ...
''. In Europe in the 16th to 18th centuries it was usually spelled with an L, e.g. "varal" (1677, French), "oûaral" (1725, French), "warral" (1738 English traveller), "worral" (1828 English dictionary). But certain influential European naturalists in the early 19th century adopted the N spelling, "varan". The V in place of W reflects Latinization. Historically in Latin and Romance languages there was no letter W and no sound /w/
varan
;
vizier A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...
: ''see
sultan Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
''


Z

;
zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction (plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The zenith is the "highest" ...
:سمت ''samt'', direction; سمت الرأس ''samt al-rā's'', direction vertically upwards, zenithal direction, literally the "top direction". ''Samt al-rā's'' is in the astronomy books of, for example,
Al-Farghani Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī ( ar, أبو العبّاس أحمد بن محمد بن كثير الفرغاني 798/800/805–870), also known as Alfraganus in the West, was an astronomer in the Abbasid court ...
(lived mid 9th century) and
Al-Battani Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Jābir ibn Sinān al-Raqqī al-Ḥarrānī aṣ-Ṣābiʾ al-Battānī ( ar, محمد بن جابر بن سنان البتاني) ( Latinized as Albategnius, Albategni or Albatenius) (c. 858 – 929) was an astron ...
(died 929), both of whom were translated to Latin in the 12th century. From its use in astronomy in Arabic, the term was borrowed into astronomy in Latin in the 12th century. The first-known securely-dated record in the Western languages is in the Arabic-to-Latin translation of Al-Battani.Al-Battani's ''Kitāb Al-Zīj'' was translated to Latin around 1140. The translator was
Plato Tiburtinus Plato Tiburtinus ( la, Plato Tiburtinus, "Plato of Tivoli"; fl. 12th century) was a 12th-century Italian mathematician, astronomer and translator who lived in Barcelona from 1116 to 1138. He is best known for translating Hebrew and Arabic docum ...
. In the translation, Al-Battani's Arabic ''samt al-rā's'' = "top direction" was written down in Latin as ''zenith capitis'' and ''zenith capitum''. The Latin ''capitis , capitum'' = "head (or top)" is a straight translation of Arabic ''rā's'' = "head (or top)". Today's etymology dictionaries are unanimous that the Latin ''zenith'' was a mangling of Arabic ''samt'' = "direction". In the same book translated by Plato Tiburtinus, Arabic سمت مطلع ''samt motalaa'' = "direction to the rising sun" was translated as Latin ''zenith ascensionis'' (chapter 7); قد تعرف السمت ''qad taarif al-samt'' = "the direction can be made known by" was translated as ''zenith sciri potest'' (chapter 11); سمت الجنوب ''samt al-janoub'' = "southern direction" was translated as ''zenith meridianum'' (chapter 12) (where medieval Latin ''meridianus'' meant "southern" and "midday"). In other words, for Plato Tiburtinus ''zenith'' meant "direction" and did not mean "zenith". But the direction that was used the most was the ''samt al-rā's'' = ''zenith capitis'' = "top direction; vertically up". The phrase ''zenith capitis'' or ''zenith capitum'' meaning "vertically up, zenithal direction" occurs in medieval Latin in Johannes de Sacrobosco (died circa 1245
(Ref)
Roger Bacon (died 1294
(Ref)
Albertus Magnus (died 1280
(Ref)
and others. Later writers dropped the ''capitis'' and used ''zenith'' alone to mean the ''zenith capitis''. Refs
zenith at CNRTL.frzenith in Brill's ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', 1st Edition''zenith capitis'' and ''zenith capitum'' in Plato Tiburtinus in Latinسمت الرأس ''samt al-ra's'' in Al-Battani's book in Arabic
. An independent Arabic-to-Spanish translation of most of the same book of Al-Battani, dated around 1260 in Spanish, rendered the Arabic ''samt'' into Spanish 105 times as ''zonte'' = "direction"

Crossref the word nadir, whose first record in the West is in the very same Arabic-to-Latin translation. ;
zero 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation Positional notation (or place-value notation, or positional numeral system) usually denotes the extension to any base of the Hindu–Arabic numeral system (or ...
: صفر ''sifr'', zero. The use of zero as one of the elementary digits was the Hindu-Arabic numeral system's key innovation. Medieval Arabic ''sifr'' -> Latin ''zephirum'' = "zero" (used in 1202 by
Leonardo of Pisa Fibonacci (; also , ; – ), also known as Leonardo Bonacci, Leonardo of Pisa, or Leonardo Bigollo Pisano ('Leonardo the Traveller from Pisa'), was an Italian mathematician from the Republic of Pisa, considered to be "the most talented Western ...
, who was one of the early Latin adopters of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system) -> Old Italian ''zefiro'' (used by Piero Borgi in the 1480s) -> contracted to ''zero'' in Old Italian before 1485 -> French ''zéro'' 1485 -> English zero 1604; rare in English before 1800.Nathan Bailey's English Dictionary in year 1726 defined zero as "a word used for cypher or nought especially by the French"
ref
Samuel Johnson's English Dictionary in 1755 and 1785 did not include the word zero at all. The usual names for zero in English from the late medieval period until well into the 19th century were "nought" and "cifre" , "cipher"
ref1aref1bref2aref2bref3
Crossref cipher.


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

;
tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...
: English tambourine is from French ''tambourin'' = "small drum" (15th century), which is from French ''tambour'' = "drum" (14th century), which is from French ''tabour'' = "drum" (13th century), which is from French ''tabor , tabur'' = "military drum used by Muslim armies" (12th century). Which is probably from Arabic طبول ' = "military drums, and any drums".
Military drum Military drums or war drums are all kinds of drums and membranophones that have been used for martial music, including military communications, as well as drill, honors music and military ceremonies. History Among ancient war drums that ...
s were not in use in French armies at the time when the word emerged in French in the 12th century as a military drum. Most of the early records in French are in a genre of military-legend ballads known as ''
chansons de geste The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th cen ...
'' in which war-drums are pounded by the enemy side only, and the enemy is non-Christian, usually Muslim. First record in French is in the war ballad ''
Chanson de Roland ''The Song of Roland'' (french: La Chanson de Roland) is an 11th-century ''chanson de geste'' based on the Frankish military leader Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 AD, during the reign of the Carolingian king Charlemagne. It is ...
'' about 1100, featuring a Muslim enemy. Muslim armies standardly used drums from the 10th century onward and ' is the usual word for drums in Arabic since the beginning of written records. In evaluating this etymology, different people have expressed different views about the prior probability of the phonetic change involved in the step from ' to ''tabour''. ; tartar (a chemical), tartrates (chemicals),
tartaric acid Tartaric acid is a white, crystalline organic acid that occurs naturally in many fruits, most notably in grapes, but also in bananas, tamarinds, and citrus. Its salt, potassium bitartrate, commonly known as cream of tartar, develops naturally i ...
: Early records of tartar as a chemical name in Latin are in the mid-12th century in the medical books of the Salernitan school of medicine in southern Italy, spelled ''tartarum'', designating a substance that consisted mainly of what is now called potassium bitartrate. The ancient Greeks and Romans used this substance, including in medicine (e.g.
Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides ( grc-gre, Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of ''De materia medica'' (, On Medical Material) —a 5-vol ...
in Greek in the 1st century AD called it ''trux''). The name tartar is not in classical Latin or Greek in any chemical sense, although there was a classical mythological hell called
Tartarus In Greek mythology, Tartarus (; grc, , }) is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato's ''Gorgias'' (), souls are judg ...
. The origin of the medieval Latin name is obscure. A parent in Arabic has been speculatively suggested by a number of dictionaries. A parent in Byzantine Greek is also speculated. ;
tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
: Most likely comes from the Arabic word for tobacco ''طمباقو'', (pronounced "tumbaaqoo"). The English word comes from Spanish ''tabaco''. Most of today's English dictionaries derive the Spanish word from the Amerindian language of Haiti. But most of today's Spanish dictionaries derive it from a late medieval Spanish plantname that they say came from a medieval Arabic plantname. The question is unsettled. ;
traffic Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other conveyances that use public ways (roads) for travel and transportation. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic ...
: This word, which is in the great majority of European languages today, is seen earliest in early 14th-century Italian. Records from the port of Pisa in the 1320s have noun ''traffico'' and verb ''trafficare''. The early meaning was "bringing merchandise to a distant selling market", more often than not by sea, "commerce, especially long-distance commerce". The origin is obscure: various propositions have been aired from Latinate and Arabic sources but none convincingly. The following are Arabic-descended words in English that got established in later medieval Latinate commerce on the Mediterranean Sea with start dates in Italian (also Catalan) earlier than Spanish or Portuguese: arsenal, average, carat, garble, magazine, sequin, tare (weight), and tariff. In view of those borrowings, and because "traffic" lacks a convincing derivation from Latin, an Arabic source for "traffic" is a possibility. ;
zircon Zircon () is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates and is a source of the metal zirconium. Its chemical name is zirconium(IV) silicate, and its corresponding chemical formula is Zr SiO4. An empirical formula showing some of the r ...
,
zirconium Zirconium is a chemical element with the symbol Zr and atomic number 40. The name ''zirconium'' is taken from the name of the mineral zircon, the most important source of zirconium. The word is related to Persian '' zargun'' (zircon; ''zar-gun'', ...
: English and French ''zircon'' are from German ''zirkon'', which starts in German mineralogists and chemists in the 1780s meaning a zircon gemstone. The German ''zirkon'' is almost surely from the pre-existing Italian ', Italian ''giargone'', French ''jargon'', which in 18th century Italian and French was a jewellery word meaning zircon gemstones and zircon-like gemstones, in various colors.To show that German ''zirkon'' came from Italian '' , giargone'' and French ''jargon'', several pages of 18th century quotations are assembled a
REF
The matter is beset by the presence of more than one small but noticeable phonetic irregularity in going from '' , jargon'' to ''zirkon''. For the phonetic reason, some etymology writers have taken the position that the source of the German ''zirkon'' is undetermined; e.g
Mettmann year 1962
But lots of later-18th-century documentation supports the position that its source was '. ''Zargone'' meaning zircon and zircon-like gemstones is in Italian books about gemstones; e.g
year 1682year 1730year 1785year 1791
The German ''zirkon'' in its earliest known records, in the early 1780s, was identically synonymous with ''zargone , jargon''; e.g
year 1780 in German
In the mid and late 1780s in German mineralogy literature, ''zirkon'' was narrowed and redefined to a specific species of ''zargone , jargon'' that came from Ceylon; e.g
year 1787year 1789
The German ''zirkon'' in the late 1780s was a scientifically defined species of '' , giargone , jargon''. The mineralogists of Italy and France started adopting the German wordform around year 1800 because of its better mineralogical specificity. The Italian '' , giargone'' and French ''jargon'' gemstone-name was descended from medieval French ', medieval Italian ''giarconsia'', medieval Spanish ''iargonça'', medievally meaning zircon gemstones and zircon-like gemstones, in various colors.For the ''jargonce'' gemstone in medieval French (also ''jagonce'') se
Dictionnaire Étymologique de l'Ancien Français
an
Les Lapidaires Français du Moyen Age
For the same gemstone in medieval Spanish see ''iargonça , jargonça , girgonça , jagonça , jagonza'' i

For the same gemstone in medieval Italian see ''giarconsia , giarconese , giagonzo'' i
Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini
Late medieval French ''jargonce'' became post-medieval French ''jargons''. A French-to-English translation in year 1699 mentions the jargon gemstone 14 times but always in the grammatical plural, "jargons"
Ref
In the famous French encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert, dated 1765, the name for the jargon gemstone is ''Jargons'' (not ''Jargon'')
Refalt link
It is also in medieval French, Spanish and Italian as ''jagonce , jagonça , giagonzo'' with the same meaning. ''Jagonce'' was the parent of '. The immediate source of medieval ''jagonce'' is not clear. It is demonstrably related to medieval Syriac ''yaqūndā'', a gemstone with about the same meaning, but there is no known basis in Arabic for deriving ''jagonce'' from Arabic.


Notes about the List

Obsolete words and very rarely used non-technical words are not included in the list, but some specialist technical words are included. For example, the technical word "
alidade An alidade () (archaic forms include alhidade, alhidad, alidad) or a turning board is a device that allows one to sight a distant object and use the line of sight to perform a task. This task can be, for example, to triangulate a scale map on site ...
" comes from the Arabic name for an ancient measuring device used to determine line-of-sight direction. Despite few English-speaking people being acquainted with it, the device's name remains part of the vocabulary of English-speaking surveyors, and today's instrument uses modern technology, and is included in the list. There are no words on the list where the transfer from Arabic to a Western language occurred before the ninth century AD; the earliest records of transfer are in ninth century Latin. Before then some words were transferred into Latin from Semitic sources (usually via Greek intermediation), including some that later ended up in English, but in most cases the Semitic source was not Arabic and in the rest of the cases it is impossible to know whether the Semitic source was Arabic or not. See List of English words of Semitic origin, excluding words known to be of Hebrew or Arabic origin. The list has been restricted to loan words: It excludes loan translations. Here's an example of a loan translation. In Arabic the words for father, mother and son are often used to denote relationships between things. Surrounding the brain and spinal chord is a tough outer layer of membrane called in today's English the
dura mater In neuroanatomy, dura mater is a thick membrane made of dense irregular connective tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It is the outermost of the three layers of membrane called the meninges that protect the central nervous system. ...
. The words ''dura'' = "hard" and ''mater'' = "mother" are each in Latin from antiquity. Medieval Latin ''dura mater erebri', literally "hard mother
f the brain F, or f, is the sixth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#Let ...
is a loan-translation of Arabic الأمّ الجافية ''al-umm al-jāfīa l-dimāgh', literally "dry-husk mother
f the brain F, or f, is the sixth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#Let ...
(a dry husk is a hard shell), and the translator in this case was
Constantinus Africanus Constantine the African ( la, Constantinus Africanus; died before 1098/1099, Monte Cassino) was a physician who lived in the 11th century. The first part of his life was spent in Ifriqiya and the rest in Italy. He first arrived in Italy in the ...
(died c. 1087). As another well-known example of a loan-translation, the word "
sine In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side that is oppo ...
"—as in sine, cosine and tangent—has its first record with that meaning in an Arabic-to-Latin book translation in the 12th century, translating Arabic ''jayb''. ''Jayb'' had a second and quite unrelated meaning in Arabic that was translatable to Latin as ''sinus'' and the translator took up that connection to confer a new meaning to the Latin ''sinus'', in preference to borrowing the foreign word ''jayb'', and the translator was (probably)
Gerard of Cremona Gerard of Cremona (Latin: ''Gerardus Cremonensis''; c. 1114 – 1187) was an Italian translator of scientific books from Arabic into Latin. He worked in Toledo, Kingdom of Castile and obtained the Arabic books in the libraries at Toledo. Some of ...
(died c. 1187).Dictionary.Reference.com (2010)sinus#2 @ CNRTL.fr
and many others. The medieval Arabic جيب ''jayb'' i
Lane's Arabic Lexicon page 492
can be compared for meaning against the classical Latin ''sinus'' i
Lewis and Short's Dictionary of Classical Latin
About half of the loan-words on the list have their earliest record in a Western language in the 12th or 13th century. Some additional, unquantified number of terms were brought into the West in the 12th and 13th centuries by Arabic-to-Latin translators who used loan-translations in preference to loan-words. Some related information is at Translations from Arabic to Latin in the 12th century.


See also

*
Influence of Arabic on other languages Arabic has had a great influence on other languages, especially in vocabulary. The influence of Arabic has been most profound in those countries visited by Islam or Islamic power. Arabic loanwords have made into many languages as diverse as Amh ...
*
List of Islamic terms in Arabic The following list consists of notable concepts that are derived from Islamic and associated cultural (Arab, Persian, Turkish) traditions, which are expressed as words in Arabic or Persian language. The main purpose of this list is to disambig ...
* List of English words of Sanskrit origin *
List of English words of Persian origin This article will be concerned with loanwords, that is, words in English that derive from Persian, either directly, or more often, from one or more intermediary languages. Many words of Persian origin have made their way into the English lang ...


Footnotes


General references


''Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales''
– etymologies in French language
''Arabismen im Deutschen: lexikalische Transferenzen vom Arabischen ins Deutsche''
by Raja Tazi (year 1998). – 400-page book about the German words of Arabic ancestry. Mostly the same words that are seen in English. German got the words mostly from French and Latin, and thirdly from other European languages.
Baheth.info
– searchable copies of large medieval Arabic dictionaries, including the dictionaries by
Ibn Manzur Muhammad ibn Mukarram ibn Alī ibn Ahmad ibn Manzūr al-Ansārī al-Ifrīqī al-Misrī al-Khazrajī () also known as Ibn Manẓūr () (June–July 1233 – December 1311/January 1312) was an Arab lexicographer of the Arabic language and author of ...
,
Fairuzabadi Firuzabadi ( fa, فیروزآبادی) also spelled as al-Fayrūzabādī ( ar, الفيروزآبادي (1329–1414) was a lexicographer and was the compiler of ''al-Qamous'' (), a comprehensive and, for nearly five centuries, one of the most wi ...
, and Al-Jawhari
''Richardson's Persian-Arabic–English Dictionary'', year 1852 Edition
– 1400 pages; downloadable
''Middle English Dictionary''
– biggest and best for late medieval English, fully searchable online
''Online Etymology Dictionary''
– compiled by Douglas Harper – '' Online Etymology Dictionary''
CollinsDictionary.com
– online copy of ''
Collins English Dictionary The ''Collins English Dictionary'' is a printed and online dictionary of English. It is published by HarperCollins in Glasgow. The edition of the dictionary in 1979 with Patrick Hanks as editor and Laurence Urdang as editorial director, was ...
''
''Concise OED''
– online copy of ''
Concise Oxford English Dictionary The ''Concise Oxford English Dictionary'' (officially titled ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary'' until 2002, and widely abbreviated ''COD'' or ''COED'') is probably the best-known of the 'smaller' Oxford dictionaries. The latest edition contains ...
''
TheFreeDictionary.com
– has online copy of ''
American Heritage Dictionary American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
''
''Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary''
– online copy of ''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary''
''An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' (year 1921), by Ernest Weekley
– downloadable, 850 pages, a compilation of short summary etymologies {{DEFAULTSORT:Arabic words in English Lists of English words of Arabic origin ar:كلمات إنجليزية من أصل عربي ms:Daftar kata serapan dari bahasa Arab dalam bahasa Melayu