List Of English Words Of Arabic Origin

Arabic is a Semitic language and English is an Indo-European language. The following 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 have 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 words very rarely seen in English is at Wiktionary dictionary.

Given the number of words which have entered English from Arabic, this list is split alphabetically into sublists, as listed below:

* 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

Addenda for certain specialist vocabularies

Islamic terms

Arabic astronomical and astrological names

Arabic botanical names

The following plant names entered medieval Latin texts from Arabic. Today, in descent from the medieval Latin, they are international systematic classification names (commonly known as "Latin" names): '' Azadirachta, Berberis, Cakile, Carthamus, Cuscuta, Doronicum, Galanga, Musa, Nuphar, Ribes, Senna, Taraxacum, Usnea, Physalis alkekengi, Melia azedarach, Centaurea behen, Terminalia bellerica, Terminalia chebula, Cheiranthus cheiri, Piper cubeba, Phyllanthus emblica, Peganum harmala, Salsola kali, Prunus mahaleb, Datura metel, Daphne mezereum, Rheum ribes, Jasminum sambac, Cordia sebestena, Operculina turpethum, Curcuma zedoaria, Alpinia zerumbet + Zingiber zerumbet.'' (List incomplete.)References for the medieval Arabic sources and medieval Latin borrowings of those plant names are as follows. Ones marked "(F)" go to the French dictionary at ''Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales'', ones marked "(R)" go to ''Random House Dictionary'', and other references are identified with terse labels:
Berberis
R)

Ibn Sina)
امبرباريس ''ambarbārīs'' = Berberis
Ibn Al-Baitar)
الأمبرباريس ''al-ambarbārīs'' is also called البرباريس ''al-barbārīs''
(Fairuzabadi's dictionary)
Galen uses name ''"Oxyacantha"'' for Berberis
John Gerarde)
Arabic ''amiberberis'' = Latin ''Berberis''
Matthaeus Silvaticus)
Berberis is frequent in Constantinus Africanus
(Constantinus Africanus was the introducer of plantname Berberis into medieval Latin)
Berberis
Raja Tazi 1998)
Barberry
Skeat 1888);
Cakile
Henri Lammens 1890)
Cakile
Pierre Guigues 1905)
Kakile Serapionis
John Gerarde 1597)
Chakile
Serapion the Younger, medieval Latin);; for ''Carthamus'' see Carthamin;
Cuscute
F)
Cuscuta
(Etimología), spelled كشوث ''kushūth'' in Ibn al-Baitar;
Doronicum
F)
Doronicum
R), spelled درونج ''dorūnaj'' in Ibn al-Baitar;
Garingal & Galanga
F)
Galingale & Galanga
NED);
Musa
Devic)
Musa
Alphita)
موز ''mauz''
Ibn al-Baitar)
Muse #4 and Musa
NED);
Nuphar (nénuphar)
F)
Nénuphar
Lammens);
Ribès
Pierre Guigues 1903 in preface to translation of Najm al-Din Mahmud (died 1330))
Ribes
Lammens 1890), the meaning of late medieval Latin ''ribes'' was ''Rheum ribes'' �
e.g.e.g.
– and the medieval Arabic ريباس ''rībās'' had the very same meaning �
e.g.
;
Senna
F)
Senna
R)
Séné
Lammens), ''Sene'' in Alphita, السنى ''al-sanā'' and السني ''al-senī'' in Ibn al-Baitar;
Taraxacum
Skeat)
Ataraxacon
Alphita)
Taraxacum
R);
Usnea
F)
Usnea
R)
Usnee
Simon of Genoa)
Usnée
Lammens);
alkekengi
F)
alkekengi
R);
azedarach
F)
azedarach
Garland Cannon)
azadarach + azedarach
Matthaeus Silvaticus anno 1317)


béhen
Devic, year 1876)
Behemen = behen = behem
says Matthaeus Silvaticus (year 1317); this name is بهمن ''behmen , bahman'' i
Ibn al-Baitar
an


bellerica
Yule)
bellerica
Devic)
beliligi = belirici = bellerici
Simon of Genoa), بليلج ''belīlej'' in Ibn al-Baitar;
chebula
Yule)
kebulus = chebulae
Alphita)
chébule
Devic);
cheiranthe
Devic)
keiri
NED)
خيري ''kheīrī''
Ibn al-Awwam);
cubeba
F)
cubeba
R);
emblic
Yule)
emblic
Devic)
emblic
Serapion the Younger);
harmala
Tazi)
harmale
Devic)
harmala
other)

more details);
(Salsola) kali
F)
kali = a marine littoral plant, an Arabic name
Simon of Genoa year 1292 in Latin, also in Matthaeus Silvaticus);
mahaleb
F)
mahaleb
Ibn al-Awwam)
mahaleb
Matthaeus Silvaticus year 1317);
mathil->metel
other)
metel
Devic)
nux methel
Serapion the Younger)

Ibn Sina);
mezereum
R)
mézéréon
Devic)
mezereon
Alphita: see editor's footnote quoting Matthaeus Silvaticus and John Gerarde), spelled مازريون ''māzarīūn'' in Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Baitar;
sambac
Devic)
zambacca
synonyms of Petrus de Abano, died c. 1316)
sambacus
Simon of Genoa)
زنبق = دهن الياسمين
(''zanbaq'' in ''Lisan al-Arab'');
sebesten
other)
sebesten
Devic)
sebesten
Alphita) (''sebesten'' in late medieval Latin referred to ''Cordia myxa'', not ''Cordia sebestena'', and the medieval Arabic سبستان ''sebestān'' was Cordia myxa);
turpeth
F)
turpeth
R);
zedoaria
F)
zedoaria
R);
zérumbet
F), zerumbet is from medieval Latin
zurumbet

zurumbeth

zerumbet
' which is from Arabic زرنباد


zarunbād
'. The great majority of the above plant names can be seen in Latin in the late-13th-century medical-botany dictionary ''Synonyma Medicinae'' by Simon of Geno
(online)
and in the mid-15th-century Latin medical-botany dictionary called the ''Alphita'
(online)
and the few that are not in either of those two dictionaries can be seen in Latin in the book on medicaments by Serapion the Younger circa 130
(online)
None of the names are found in Latin in early medieval or classical Latin botany or medicine books -- partially excepting a complication over the name ''harmala'', and excepting ''galanga'' and ''zedoaria'' because they have Latin records beginning in the 9th or 10th centuries. In other words nearly all the names were introduced to Latin in the later-medieval period, specifically from the late 11th through late 13th centuries. Most early Latin users lived in Italy. All of the names, without exception, are in the Arabic-to-Latin medical translations of Constantinus Africanus (died c. 1087) and/or Gerardus Cremonensis (died c. 1187) and/or Serapion the Younger (dated later 13th century Latin). The Arabic predecessors of the great majority of the names can be seen in Arabic as entries in Part Two of ''The Canon of Medicine'' of Ibn Sina, dated about 1025 in Arabic, which became a widely circulated book in Latin medical circles in the 13th and 14th centuries: an Arabic copy is a
DDC.AUB.edu.lb
All of the Arabic predecessor plant-names without exception, and usually with better descriptions of the plants (compared to Ibn Sina's descriptions), are in Ibn al-Baitar's ''Comprehensive Book of Simple Medicines and Foods'', dated about 1245, which was not translated to Latin in the medieval era but was published in the 19th century in German, French, and Arabic – an Arabic copy is a
Al-Mostafa.com
and a
AlWaraq.net

Over ninety percent of those botanical names were introduced to medieval Latin in a herbal medicine context. They include names of medicinal plants from Tropical Asia for which there had been no prior Latin or Greek name, such as azedarach, bellerica, cubeba, emblica, galanga, metel, turpethum, zedoaria and zerumbet. Another sizeable portion are ultimately Iranian names of medicinal plants of Iran. The Arabic-to-Latin translation of Ibn Sina's '' The Canon of Medicine'' helped establish many Arabic plant names in later medieval Latin. A book about medicating agents by Serapion the Younger containing hundreds of Arabic botanical names circulated in Latin among apothecaries in the 14th and 15th centuries. Medieval Arabic botany was primarily concerned with the use of plants for medicines. In a modern etymology analysis of one medieval Arabic list of medicines, the names of the medicines —primarily plant names— were assessed to be 31% ancient Mesopotamian names, 23% Greek names, 18% Persian, 13% Indian (often via Persian), 5% uniquely Arabic, and 3% Egyptian, with the remaining 7% of unassessable origin.

The Italian botanist Prospero Alpini stayed in Egypt for several years in the 1580s. He introduced to Latin botany from Arabic from Egypt the names ''Abrus, Abelmoschus, Lablab, Melochia'', each of which designated plants that were unknown to Western European botanists before Alpini, plants native to tropical Asia that were grown with artificial irrigation in Egypt at the time.

In the early 1760s Peter Forsskål systematically cataloged plants and fishes in the Red Sea area. For genera and species that did not already have Latin names, Forsskål used the common Arabic names as the scientific names. This became the international standard for most of what he cataloged. Forsskål's Latinized Arabic plant genus names include ''Aerva, Arnebia, Cadaba, Ceruana, Maerua, Maesa, Themeda'', and others.

Some additional miscellaneous botanical names with Arabic ancestry include ''Abutilon