# English words from Arabic **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 13, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570 "2004-11-13T16:20:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/1 "2004-11-13T16:20:36Z")
I know algebra and algorithim are two common words that derive directly from Arabic, but are there many other words in English in frequent use? I’m wondering about common words, unlike hegira, and words recently (say since 1950s) brought into English, so jihad would be out (was it used often in English before the 1990s?). Thanks. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/2 "2004-11-13T16:30:06Z")
[English Words of Arabic Origin.](http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/List%20of%20English%20words%20of%20Arabic%20origin) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/3 "2004-11-13T16:40:18Z")
Darn, I was going to link to that. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/4 "2004-11-13T17:05:23Z")
The name of Southern California city of Alhambra is of Arabic origin. I believe the name of the city is from the Muslim palace in Spain. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/5 "2004-11-13T18:51:35Z")
Ibn / Eben / Ben / Ivan / Ian / John / Johan are all the same. ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/6 "2004-11-13T19:18:19Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Ibn / Eben / Ben / Ivan / Ian / John / Johan are all the same. Um, no. Ibn / Eben / Ben are “son” formations. Benjamin \<- ben Jamin: “son of the right hand” Ivan / Ian / John / Johan are Russian, Scottish, English, and Scandanavian derivations of Latin “Johannes”, from Greek “Ioannes”, from Hebrew “Yochanan”: “YHVH is gracious”. I don’t know of any uses of “Ibn” as a name in and of itself, and none of these are _words_. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/7 "2004-11-13T20:23:04Z")
> [@Mathochist](#): > > Ibn / Eben / Ben are “son” formations. Benjamin \<- ben Jamin: “son of the right hand”. Further, “ben” is Hebrew while “ibn” or “bin” is Arabic, eg. bin Laden, ibn Saud in Arabic or ben Gurion in Hebrew. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/8 "2004-11-13T21:50:42Z")
I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for, but most common star names (Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, Rigel, etc.) come from the Arabic. While the Europeans were busy laying seige to each other and dying of the plague, the _Syntaxis_ of Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer, was translated by Persian scholars, who called it “The Greatest.” The original Greek version of the _Syntaxis_ was lost, but it was later transliterated from Arabic back to Latin as _The Almagest_. [A list.](http://www.jas.org.jo/star.html) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/9 "2004-11-13T21:56:42Z")
An unexpectedly large piece of the Spanish vocabulary, including a large number of words borrowed by English, is derived from Arabic as a result of the Moorish occupation of Spain (rough dates 700-1200 AD). ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/10 "2004-11-13T22:07:26Z")
> [@Podkayne](#): > > the _Syntaxis_ of Ptolemy, the Greek astronomer, was translated by Persian scholars I’d have expected them to translate it into Farsi… ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/11 "2004-11-13T22:08:56Z")
> [@Mathochist](#): > > I’d have expected them to translate it into Farsi… Or whatever the mother-tongue was. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/12 "2004-11-13T23:03:37Z")
> [@Mathochist](#): > > Or whatever the mother-tongue was. You got it right. Farsi is the mother-tongue of Persians. It’s an Indo-European language entirely unrelated to Arabic. Farsi and English are distant cousins. ---
**Author:** ![Roches](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bc8723/32.png) [@Roches](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roches)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/13 "2004-11-13T23:23:26Z")
I had thought the chemical terms _alkane_, _alkene_ and _alkyne_ (for hydrocarbons containing only single bonds, a double bond, and a triple bond, respectively) were of Arabic origin – at least _alkane_. According to Merriam-Webster they ultimately are, but not direct; it says each is formed from _alkyl_ plus the suffix -ane, -ene, -yne. I suppose the suffixes existed before these terms, which isn’t all that surprising considering that they are relatively new terms (cf. paraffin, olefin). _Alkyl_, though, is derived from _alcohol_, which is of Arabic origin. One other chemical term partly derived from _alcohol_ is _aldehyde_, coined in the 19th century from New Latin _alcohol dehydrogenatus_ (dehydrogenated alcohol). ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/14 "2004-11-13T23:28:02Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > You got it right. Farsi is the mother-tongue of Persians. It’s an Indo-European language entirely unrelated to Arabic. Farsi and English are distant cousins. I meant the mother-tongue of Farsi. I didn’t know how related Farsi and Arabic were, and thought that possibly they might share an ancestor as near as the time spoken of in the post to which I was replying. In general, I didn’t want to be taken as implying that what was spoken then was “Farsi” as we now know it. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/15 "2004-11-14T00:47:04Z")
Forgive me, my knowledge of this period and region of the world is very rudimentary. I may have conflated the translation of the Almagest with other work of Persian mathematicians and astronomers. Unfortunately, I loaned out my copy of _Coming of Age in the Milky Way_, which would be my best resource (and where I’m (mis?)remembering the Persian thing from.) I’m having a hard time pinpointing the place where the translation took place. > [@](#): > > In the eigth and ninth centruries the Almagest was translated first into Syriac and then into Arabic. The first translation into Arabic (early 800s) was by Al Haggag ben Jusuf ben Matar. [Cite](http://www.star-names.freeserve.co.uk/almagest.html) > [@](#): > > It was translated into Arabic about the year A.D. 827, under the patronage of the Caliph Al Mamun, by the Jew Alhazen ben Joseph, and the Christian Sergius. [Cite](http://users.rcn.com/detroyes/astrolabe/Endnotes/en015.htm) Al Mamun’s capital was Bagdhad, and he built an important library there. I don’t think that Baghdad was considered to be part of Persia in the 9th century. Arabic became the _lingua franca_ in the Muslim Empire, so scholars working in Persia might have been translating ancient works into Arabic rather than their native language. And that is all I have to say about that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/16 "2004-11-14T02:12:43Z")
> [@Podkayne](#): > > I don’t think that Baghdad was considered to be part of Persia in the 9th century. In terms of cultural influence it was still very much so at this point - the Abbasids were quite “Persian” in outlook compared to the previous Umayyad dynasty. The Caliph al-Ma’mun in particular had been governor of Khurasan ( Eastern Persia, roughly ) before defeating his brother the Caliph al-Amin and supplanting him in the Fourth Fitna ( Islamic civil war ). > [@](#): > > Arabic became the _lingua franca_ in the Muslim Empire, so scholars working in Persia might have been translating ancient works into Arabic rather than their native language. This was in fact the case, though things like poetry were starting to be written in Farsi right about this time. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/17 "2004-11-14T02:22:00Z")
Thanks for the clarification, **Tamerlane**! ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/18 "2004-11-14T11:39:33Z")
“bint” is my favourite arab word commo0nly used in English. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/19 "2004-11-14T17:28:58Z")
Yes, the Greek _Mathematical Syntaxis_ of Ptolemy was translated into Syriac and then into Arabic (and later, when the Muslim translators were more hep to the Greek sources, into Arabic directly from Greek). The Greek adjective “megistos” (“greatest”) was apparently already a common epithet for the _Syntaxis_, since the Arabic translators transliterated it into “al-mijisti” = _Almagest_. Persian translations were for the most part later, from Arabic versions. Iranian and Central Asian astronomers and mathematicians writing in Persian (as well as in Arabic) were indeed numerous beginning near the end of the first millennium (al-Biruni, al-Qushji, al-Tusi, etc. etc.). Even among Persian scholars, Arabic tended to be the language of choice for theoretical works, although Persian was more commonly used for handbooks such as the astronomical tables called _zijes_. But AFAIK the medium of the earliest adaptations of Greek science into the Islamic world was Arabic, and the center of activity was, as you say, Baghdad. See Dmitri Gutas’ _Greek Thought, Arab Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries)_ for a good description of this process. Another fertile field of Arabic loanwords in English is music. **QED** ’s list has “lute” and “tambourine” but omits “nakers”, a type of small paired hemispherical drum. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-words-from-arabic/274570/20 "2004-11-14T20:30:32Z")
The list also omits “caliber” indirectly derived from an Arabic word for a mold, as used for casting metal. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) confirms it. My original source for this was an interview with the (producer? director?) of the movie _Excalibur_ (i.e. ‘out of the mold’), referring to the use of lost-wax casting to make a hand-grip that would stay firmly attached to the sword. (It would be really embarassing to find your weapon getting all wobbly in the midst of an encounter!) Allegedly, Arthur was trying to keep Britain ‘civilized’ after the Roman legions left and took their armourers with them, which would make it somewhat plausible that his sword was so-named after his re-introduction of the technique. I have no idea if there’s any grain of truth in the story.