Words the world borrowed · كلماتٌ استعارها العالم
Algebra, coffee, sugar, zenith: Arabic words that travelled into other languages, each with its sourced story.
الجبرُ والقهوةُ والسكّرُ والسَّمْت: كلماتٌ عربيةٌ سافرت إلى لغاتٍ أخرى، ولكلٍّ منها قصةٌ موثَّقة.
- غَزَال (ghazāl) — gazelle
- يَاسَمِين (yāsamīn) — jasmine
- عَنْبَر (ʿanbar) — ambergris
- قُبَّة (qubbah) — dome
- عُود (ʿūd) — the oud (lute)
- جَبْر (jabr) — setting right; restoring what was broken
- كِيمِيَاء (kīmiyāʾ) — chemistry
- كُحْل (kuḥl) — kohl, a fine dark powder for lining the eyes
- قَهْوَة (qahwah) — coffee
- سُكَّر (sukkar) — sugar
- قُطْن (quṭn) — cotton
- مَخْزَن (makhzan) — storehouse, warehouse
- أَمِير (amīr) — prince
- سَمْت الرَّأْس (samt al raʾs) — the zenith, the point of the sky directly overhead
- صِفْر (ṣifr) — zero
- نَظِير (naẓīr) — equal, counterpart
- تَعْرِيف (taʿrīf) — definition
- دَار الصِّنَاعَة (dār al ṣināʿah) — shipyard, workshop (literally, the house of making)
- شَرَاب (sharāb) — a drink
- لَيْمُون (laymūn) — lemon
- زَعْفَرَان (zaʿfarān) — saffron
- تَمْر هِنْدِيّ (tamr hindī) — tamarind (literally, Indian date)
- مَوْسِم (mawsim) — season
- زَرَافَة (zarāfah) — giraffe
- قِيرَاط (qīrāṭ) — carat, a small weight
- إِكْسِير (iksīr) — elixir
- قِرْمِز (qirmiz) — crimson
- خَرْشُوف (kharshūf) — artichoke
- نَارَنْج (nāranj) — bitter orange, Seville orange
- كَافُور (kāfūr) — camphor
- بَدَوِيّ (badawī) — Bedouin, desert dweller
- وَادِي (wādī) — valley; a stream bed that fills only after rain
- سَمُوم (samūm) — a scorching, dusty desert wind
- مَنَارَة (manārah) — lighthouse
- غُول (ghūl) — ghoul, a demon of desert folklore
- جِنّ (jinn) — jinn, unseen beings of folklore and scripture
- سُلْطَان (sulṭān) — power, authority
- وَزِير (wazīr) — minister of state
- صُفَّة (ṣuffah) — a raised bench or platform
- مُومِيَاء (mūmiyāʾ) — mummy, an embalmed body
- أَنْبِيق (anbīq) — alembic, the alchemists’ still
- عَرَق (ʿaraq) — sweat
- رِزْمَة (rizmah) — bundle, bale
- خَلِيفَة (khalīfah) — successor
- جَرَّة (jarrah) — earthenware jar
- طَلْق (ṭalq) — talc
- بَاذِنْجَان (bādhinjān) — aubergine, eggplant
- قَنْد (qand) — cane sugar, crystallised sugar
- شَيْخ (shaykh) — old man, elder
- قَصْر (qaṣr) — palace
- طُوب (ṭūb) — bricks
- مَطْرَح (maṭraḥ) — a place, a spot (literally, where something is thrown down)
- سِكَّة (sikkah) — railway track, the rails
- غَرْبَلَة (gharbalah) — sifting, sieving
- سَفَر (safar) — travel, a journey