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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

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