Words from Arabic

Family

Arabic grew out of Semitic.

The words, A to Z

• almanac

  A yearly book of dates and weather once carried the sky itself in its name.

• artichoke

  This thistly vegetable dragged its name across four languages before landing in English.

• azure

  A sky-blue word that started life as a stone from a mountain region in Afghanistan.

• cafeteria

  This word for a self-serve dining hall started life as a place to grab a cup of coffee.

• candy

  That sweet word in your mouth traveled through four languages before it ever touched your tongue.

• caraway

  This little seed's name has been passed hand to hand across languages like a spice traded down a caravan route.

• chemistry

  The science of matter's transformations was named after a word for pouring liquids.

• chess

  The board game's name is really a shout of "the king!" passed down through five languages.

• coffee

  A word that traveled from Arabia to your kitchen counter by way of four different languages, picking up a new coat of spelling in each one.

• emir

  A title for a ruler that quietly shares its roots with the word for someone commanding a ship.

• fatwa

  A word for a legal opinion that, in one famous case, became a matter of life and death.

• gauze

  A fabric so thin it seems to remember the word for the fiber it once was.

• ghoul

  This word for a grave-robbing demon traveled through three languages before it started haunting English.

• harem

  A word for a private household space traces back to the idea of something set apart and off-limits.

• jumper

  A humble sailor's coat may have sailed all the way from Arabic tailoring into your closet.

• lemonade

  A word that traveled from a citrus grove all the way through the grammar of French suffixes before landing in your summer glass.

• lilac

  This pale purple flower's name traces all the way back to a word for the color blue.

• lute

  This word for a pear-shaped, plucked instrument carries the ghost of the word 'wood' inside it.

• marzipan

  This sweet almond paste may owe its name to a faraway spice-trading port, not to any bakery at all.

• mattress

  The thing you sleep on once meant simply a place where something got tossed down.

• monsoon

  A wind pattern named not for water, but for time itself.

• mosque

  A building whose name traveled from a bowed body to a French spelling before landing in English.

• mummy

  One little word hides two completely unrelated stories — one about preserved bodies, the other about the first word many of us ever say.

• nadir

  The lowest point of all has a name that literally means the opposite of the highest.

• racket

  The word for a tennis paddle and the word for a loud commotion may be two completely different words wearing the same spelling.

• saffron

  This golden spice carried its name across four languages before it ever reached an English kitchen.

• sash

  This word for a cloth band and this word for a window frame turn out to be two different words wearing the same three letters.

• satin

  This glossy fabric is named after a city, not a texture.

• sheikh

  An Arabic word for a respected elder ended up starring as Hollywood's idea of a smoldering romantic hero.

• tabby

  A striped cat's name traces back to a neighborhood in Baghdad famous for silk.

• tambourine

  This jingly instrument's name shrank its way into English from a much bigger word for drum.

• tangerine

  This little citrus fruit is named after a city on the coast of Morocco.

• traffic

  That jam of cars on the highway carries the ghost of old merchants haggling in port cities.

• turmeric

  A golden spice with a name that might mean 'earth that deserves praise'.

• typhoon

  A giant Pacific storm that may have circled the globe linguistically before landing in English.