English words of Arabic origin.

[Sikeliot]

I have studied Arabic for over a year so some of them I knew, some I did not.

How many of you knew these words were from an Arabic root?

Some of them are directly from Arabic, others made it into Romance languages first.

Admiral -- Amīr al-bahr = "commander of the sea" was a title in use in Arabic Sicily, and was adopted by the Normans in Sicily in a Latinized form, and later adopted by medieval Genoese and French.

Albatross

Alchemy/chemistry

Alcohol

Alcove

Alfalfa

Alkaline

Apricot

Arsenal

Artichoke

Assassin

Caliber

Candy

Check

Coffee

Cork

Cotton

Elixir

Gauze

Gazelle

Gerbil

Giraffe

Guitar

Jar

Jasmine

Garbage

Lemon

Lime

Magazine

Mattress

Monsoon

Orange

Racket

Safari

Sash

Scarlet

Sequin

Soda/sodium

Sofa

Spinach

Sugar

Sumac

Sherbet/sorbet/syrup

Tangerine (from Tangiers, Morocco)

Tariff

Tuna

Zenith

Zero

[Jackson]

Fascinating, thanks for sharing. That's certainly a talking point.

[Sikeliot]

Some of them are obvious, like sherbet, sorbet, etc. from the Arabic verb "drink" -- شرب.

I suspect most of them came into Italian via Sicily, or into Spain via al-Andalus.

[Yaroslav]

Compared with French, Latin, and, to some extent, Greek influence, it's literally nothing.

[curupira]

A few more (and even some of those already posted, but with expanded explanation):

ADMIRAL (أميــــــــر الرحلة, meaning commander of the fleet, or literally “of the trip”)
ADOBE (الطوب: meaning a “brick.” Next time you use an Adobe Acrobat product, you will remember that Adobe is originally Arabic!)
ALCOVE (القبة: meaning “the vault”, or “the dome”)
ARSENAL (Do fans of F.C. Arsenal today, including those living in the Arab world, know where the name of their favorite team came from? دار الصناعــــــــــــــــة : “manufacturing house”)
ASSASSIN (Just like the word MAFIA, it is of Arabic origin: It either comes from “حشَّــــــــــــــاشين”, referring to the medieval sect of the same name famous for the heavy hashish consumption by its knife-wielding members, or “العسَّاسيــــــــــــــــن”, meaning “the watchmen.”)
CALIBER (قـــــــالب: meaning “mold”)
COFFEE (قهوة: For long snubbed by Europeans as the “wine of the infidels”—that is, many centuries before the age of Starbucks and instant coffee!)
COTTON (قُطْـــــــــ)
HAZARD (الزّهر: “the dice”—Think of an Arabic TV series hazardly titled “The Dukes of Al-Azhar”…)
MASCARA (Just as with the English “masquerade” and the French “mascarade“, mascara comes from the Arabic word مسخرة, an event during which people wear masks, such as carnivals.)
RACQUET (As in a “tennis racket”. Some point to an Arabic origin of Tennis. The word racket comes the Arabic word “راحـــــــة”, as in “راحـــــة اليد”, meaning the “palm of the hand.”)
SAFARI (سفـــــــر: “travel”—As in Apple’s Safari web browser)
SOFA (الصُفــــــــة)
TARIFF (تعاريـــــــــــــــف, plural of تعريـــــــــــــــفة, meaning a “fee”, or simply تعريـــــــــــــــف, as in “بطاقــــــــة التعريـــــــــــــــف“, meaning an “identity card.”)

http://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/...arabic-origin/

Names of stars and constellations:

Altair: الطَّائـــــــــر meaning “the bird”
Betelgeuse: بيت الجــــــوزاء, meaning “the House of the Gemini”
Deneb: ذنب meaning “tail”
Fomalhaut: فم الحوت which means “the mouth of the Pisces”
Rigel: رِجـــــــل meaning “foot”, it stands for رجل الجبَّار, or the “foot of the Titan”
Vega: الواقع meaning “the Falling”, refers to النسر الواقع، meaning “the falling eagle”, etc.

http://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/...-arabic-origin

In science and math:

ALCHEMY and CHEMISTRY (الكيميـــــــــاء.)
ALCOHOL (الكُحُـــــــــول.)
ALGEBRA (الجبــر: More on the eponymous founder of Algebra as an independent mathematical discipline here.)
ALGORITHM (خوارزم: More on the eponymous founder of algorthimics here.)
ALKALINE (القلوي: Meaning “non-acid, basic.”)
ALMANAC (المنــــــاخ: Literally meaning “climate”)
AVERAGE (From Old French avarie, itself from the Arabic term عوارية, meaning “damaged goods”, from عور meaning “to lose an eye.”)
AZIMUTH (السمــــــــت: This concept is used in several fields, such as الفلك/astronomy، هندسة الطيران/aerospace engineering، and فيزياء الكم/quantum physics.)
CIPHER (صِفـــــــــــــــــــــــــــر: The term “cipher” is now mostly applied in cryptography—see الكَندي/Al-Kindi’s work.)
ELIXIR (الإكسيــــــــــــــر: Something like a “syrup”—also an Arabic term, possibly borrowed from Persian.)
NADIR (نظيـــــــــــــر: It is the opposite of the zenith.)
SODA (صـــــــــودا.)
ZENITH (سمت الرأس: Literally the “azimuth of the head”، it is the opposite of the “nadir.”)
ZERO (same as “cipher.”)

http://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/...-arabic-origin

[Comte Arnau]

In many cases, the journey was Arabic > Portuguese/Spanish/Catalan/Italian/Venetian > (Occitan) > French/Norman > English.

Many of the words are not Arabic in origin, but adopted in Arabic from Greek, Persian or Sanskrit. For example, this is the journey of the word SUGAR.

Sanskrit > Persian > Arabic > Medieval Latin > Old French > English

[Empecinado]

In many cases, the journey was Arabic > Portuguese/Spanish/Catalan/Italian/Venetian > (Occitan) > French/Norman > English.

Many of the words are not Arabic in origin, but adopted in Arabic from Greek, Persian or Sanskrit. For example, this is the journey of the word SUGAR.

Sanskrit > Persian > Arabic > Medieval Latin > Old French > English

Moreover, most of the Arabic words of Spanish languages haven't passed directly from Arabic but from Mozarabic and Andalusian Arabic.

[Dandelion]

Shariah court