# What Does 'Taliban' Mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 9, 2002, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451 "2002-10-09T00:13:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2002, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/1 "2002-10-09T00:13:03Z")
I was going to look up the word in my big dictionary. Of course that is pointless, because my dictionary was published in 1994. And the Taliban are a more recent phenomenon–on the evening news at least, that is. So what does the word _Taliban_ mean? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Truth\_Seeker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Truth\_Seeker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truth_Seeker)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2002, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/2 "2002-10-09T00:23:31Z")
“Taliban” is the plural of “talib” which means student in Pashto. IIRC it is derived originally from an Arabic root but you’d have to ask **Collounsbury** ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2002, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/3 "2002-10-09T00:23:34Z")
Taalib means student/inquirer in Arabic. Taliban is a frozen plural - students. ---
**Author:** ![Truth\_Seeker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Truth\_Seeker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truth_Seeker)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2002, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/4 "2002-10-09T00:25:02Z")
How’s _that_ for a simulpost! ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2002, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/5 "2002-10-09T00:30:17Z")
I thought it was from that Harry Belafonte song. “Come, Mistah Taliban, tally me banana!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Truth\_Seeker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Truth\_Seeker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truth_Seeker)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2002, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/6 "2002-10-09T00:48:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*I thought it was from that Harry Belafonte song. > > “Come, Mistah Taliban, tally me banana!” \*\* Actually, there were several variations on this theme. Here’s one of the most elaborate. [http://www.madblast.com/oska/humor\_bin.swf](http://www.madblast.com/oska/humor_bin.swf) ---
**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:** [October 9, 2002, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/7 "2002-10-09T02:14:55Z")
Actually, Arabic has a dual form: Talib (a common name) = Student Taliban = two students ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2002, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/8 "2002-10-09T02:37:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Paul in Saudi \* > \*\*Actually, Arabic has a dual form: > > Talib (a common name) = Student > Taliban = two students \*\* Correct, however as I noted this is a frozen plural. It is not proper Arabic. (Also of note, dual is not used in dialect, on a regular basis.) I believe the usage is probably farsi influenced. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2002, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/9 "2002-10-09T10:08:41Z")
What is a frozen plural, and how does it differ from an ordinary plural? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2002, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/10 "2002-10-09T15:16:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Libertarian \* > \*\*What is a frozen plural, and how does it differ from an ordinary plural? \*\* Formal Arabic, or classical Arabic (modern version Modern Standard Arabic) has declensions. Nominative, genitive and accusative. This shows up in various forms in both nouns and adjectives. Nominative, e.g. for the traveller al-musafir, pl al-musafiroun, genetive, al-musafirine. For the dual as mentioned above, the two travellers al-musafiran (nominative), al-musafirian (genitive). Frequently in dialect and where Arabic words were adopted into other languages, the plurals and even singulars were “frozen” into the most commonly used form, that is the declensions partly or wholly dropped away. In this case, Taalib got the frozen (that is un-grammatical in formal Arabic) form of Taliban rather than keeping the proper Arabic. BTW, the generally used Arabic plural for Taalib is Taleba or Tulaab. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2002, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/11 "2002-10-11T02:51:21Z")
**Collounsbury** , your knowledge of Arabic is admirable, but in this case it’s wide of the mark, sorry. _-ân_ is not an Arabic morpheme at all in this case, it’s the Persian plural suffix. Actually, Persian has two plural suffixes, _-ân_ for people and -_hâ_ for things. _Tâlibân_ is the Persian (not Pashto) plural form of the Arabic word _tâlib_ (active participle of the verb _talaba_, ‘seek’, hence ‘seekers (after knowledge)’ \> ‘students’). Persian as used in Afghanistan is called Dari, and the same language in Tajikistan is called Tajik, and whatever you call it, it is the one language used all over the whole country of Afghanistan, whereas Pashto is used only in the Pashto-speaking areas, mainly in the east of the country. The Arabic “broken plural” forms are _talabah_ and _tullâb_. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2002, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-taliban-mean/131451/12 "2002-10-11T03:41:56Z")
P.S. The question was already covered in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=92689&highlight=taliban+plural).