English Words Taken From The Arabic Language

Last week when I wrote a post about “Haram”- Officially A New English Word, I came across more words that originate from the Arabic language that are also in the dictionary of Merriam-Webster.

Sometimes when you do some research, you realize just how vast knowledge really is . More importantly, if you told some of these hardcore English/British folks alot of the words they speak come from the Arabic language, they would probably be shocked.

Anyways check out the words below, courtesy of zompist.com :

• felafel – fala:fil
• hadith – h’adi:t ‘tradition’
• jinn – jinn ‘spirits’, plural of genie
• orange – na:ranj – from Sanskrit
• sofa – s,uffah ‘raised dais with cushions’
• cotton – qutn
• caliph – khali:fah ‘successor’ – khalafa ‘succeed’
• algebra – al-jebr ‘reintegration’ – jabara reunite
• lime – li:mah ‘citrus fruit’
• mullah – mawla: ‘master’
• safari – safari:y ‘journey’ – safara travel
• magazine – makha:zin ‘storehouses’ – khazana store
• mattress – matrah ‘place where something is thrown, mat, cushion’ – tarah’a throw

Pretty cool right? Now go spread the knowledge 🙂

Was’alaam Yo!