# A question about Hajj

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hajj/605760>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 10, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hajj/605760 "2011-12-10T19:16:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hajj/605760/41 "2011-12-13T04:25:50Z")

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> [@Acsenray](#):
>
> Gene Roddenberry got the term “Ferengi” from the Amharic equivalent of the term “Farang.” Variations of the term – Ferengi, Farang, Firani, Phiringi – are known in most of the countries all the way from North Africa to Indonesia. It variously means “outsider,” “stranger,” “foreigner,” “European,” “white person,” “American,” and other terms. In Bengali, “Phiringi” can mean any or all of these things, depending on the context.

And as I only know how it sounds [when I was being discussed by my Moroccan boyfriend with his Kuwaiti buddy of that time in my life, it sounded like Ferengi, which amused me when I watched Deep Space 9 …] and not how it is spelled …

Though I can tell someone in several sentences what I think of their condition of birth parents, status as a human being and what I would like them to do with themselves, polite arabic is not in my skillset. I do not travel in the middle east, I travel in Europe, thanks. I can be wonderfully polite in French, German, Dutch, Danish, Finnish and Romanian [though swearing in Romanian is so pretty …]

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**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-hajj/605760/42 "2011-12-13T05:02:46Z")

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> [@Johanna](#):
>
> It comes from the Arabic word for the Franks. Since the Franks were the main European nationality who invaded Palestine, Syria, Egypt, etc. in the Crusades, their name became generalized for European Christians. In Arabic, _Ifranj_=the Franks and _Ifranji_=Frankish; also _Firanjah_=land of the Franks, Europe. In Persian the form of the word is _Farang_ or \*Fereng \*(the Persian language has the sound of /g/ but Arabic doesn’t and uses j there instead). The Thai, Hindi, Bengali, and Star Trek uses of the word are all borrowed from the Persian _Ferengi_ ‘European Christian’.

Strange, I always assumed that the ‘rang’ part of it meant colour(since rang means colour in Hindi). I was thinking ‘fi’-‘rangi’ as used in Hindi referred to differently coloured. Ignorance fought I guess, although I think many people who use it today probably make the same mistake as me, so it atleast partially takes on that meaning.

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