From A for Algebra to T for Tariffs

Arabic is spoken by more than 400 million people. Can you recognise these Arabic words that have made their way into English?

One of the biggest contributions the Arabic language has made to the world is in the fields of mathematics and science.

Over time, some of these words entered other languages in shortened or adapted forms, becoming so familiar that their origins are often forgotten.

One example is algebra, a cornerstone of mathematics. The term comes from the Arabic word al-jabr, meaning “restoration” or “reunion”. It originally appeared in the title of a ninth-century work on solving equations by the Baghdad-based Persian scholar Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, after whom the word “algorithm” is derived.

Other Arabic words underwent more dramatic transformations. Carat, the unit used to measure the weight of gemstones, traces its roots to the Arabic word qirat.

According to Al Hamad, these changes reveal how English and other languages adapt unfamiliar sounds. “Because English has relatively few words beginning with Q,” he explains, “Arabic words such as qirat were reshaped using more familiar sounds like C, G or K, producing forms such as carat.”

The same process can be seen in everyday vocabulary beyond science and mathematics. The word giraffe, for instance, comes from the Arabic zarafa, and went through a similar transformation as English and other European languages reshaped the original sounds to fit their own phonetic patterns, much as they did with words beginning with the Arabic letter Q.

On the other hand, words such as tariff, which is derived from the Arabic word ta’rif, meaning “to notify” or “to announce”, entered English through contact with other languages involved in trade.

Al Hamad says these words “most likely entered the English language via Romance languages” although not necessarily in the forms we recognise today. He adds that they also passed through Turkish, which “borrowed heavily from Arabic” and influenced the medieval world through trade and warfare. Later, during the British colonial era, English both borrowed from and contributed words directly to Arabic.

- Authors: Alma Milisic and Mohammed Haddad, Al Jazeera