sheikh
SHAYK · noun
ArabicEnglish
Origin
From Arabic شَيْخ (šayḵ), meaning "elder."
Journey
The word's romantic sense — a dashing, passionate lover — arose in English only after the 1921 film The Sheik popularized it.
Related words
No related English cognate is given in the facts, only the film-driven shift in meaning.
More words
From Arabic
Nearby, A–Z