Arabic is perhaps the seventh greatest contributor to the English lexicon. Comparison of the types of words borrowed from Arabic into English at various points over the past two millennia reflects the differing reasons for introducing new ideas into a culture, and changing relationships between nations. The borrowing of Arabic loan words in ancient, medieval and contemporary times, and meaning changes in those words, also reflect shifts in cultural attitudes to the Middle East.
Ancient and medieval contact between Arabic speakers and Europe had a strong scholarly, cultural and economic base. Indeed ninth century Baghdad, with its “House of Wisdom” was considered by the West to be the intellectual hub of the world. Arabic culture was admired as refined and sophisticated, resulting in extensive borrowing of Arabic technical and scientific words into Greek, Latin, French and Spanish. Until the eighteenth century the majority of Arabic words in English had come through other European languages. Some examples are algebra, algorism (via French), antimony, cipher, nadir, zenith (via Latin), and zero (via Italian).

Commercial and military endeavours also led to early borrowings of words for traded products and cultural artefacts. Social contact during the Crusades is also apparent in words like mattress (borrowed into English before 1300 from Old French materas, from Old Italian materasso and from Medieval Latin matracium, ultimately Arabic maTraH “place, cushion”).

From the eighteenth century on, colonial, military and archaeological activities took the British into Arabic countries, and the Age of Romanticism drew British travelers to the Middle East. This direct contact prompted new direct Arabic loans through spoken English, as well as colonial and military reports, historical writings, travel journals and articles. Army slang produced, for example, feloos “money”, bint “girl” (later derogated to “prostitute”), and shufti “a look” (from shuf “to see”). Increased migration in the past century has brought direct contact between Arabic and English speakers, with loan words like tabbouleh, couscous, hummus and babaghanush for food stuffs.

Meaning change
A number of Arabic loans have undergone changes after borrowing. The word hazard demonstrates change across several different languages. From Arabic az-zahr “the die”, it developed the meaning of “unlucky throw of the dice” as Old Spanish azar, and this transferred to Old French. In English from about 1300, hazard was at first a specialist term in dice throwing, golf and billiards, but by 1618 had developed an additional generalized meaning of “risk”. Magazine (1583) from French magasin, (from Arabic al-maxzen “storeroom”) now has three related English meanings: a storehouse for arms; ( from 1744) part of a gun that stores cartridges, and (from 1639) a print periodical (storehouse for information).

Metaphorical change can be seen with tabby which meant “silk cloth with striped pattern” when borrowed in 1638 from French. Tabis “rich watered silk” came from Late Latin attabi from Arabic at-taabi “watered silk from Attab ( a place in Baghdad)”. By 1695 the phrase tabby cat was in use, and tabby as a noun meaning “striped cat” developed by 1774.

Proper borrowed nouns from the history or mythology of any country (like Vandals, Tartars, Young Turks and Adonis) can develop new common noun meanings according to cultural assumptions of the borrowing group. Genie (as in Aladdin’s Lamp) entered English as a beguiling spirit, very different from the demonic meaning of Arabic jinn. A common trend in change is for words for lower social groups to derogate and broaden. Assassin “someone who murders suddenly (usually to an organizational end)” (1531) comes from the Arabic Al-Hashshaashiin “The Assassins”, members of a Palestinian sect during the Crusades who carried out secret murders under the influence of hashish. Similarly, Arabic filisTin “Palestine” (from Assyrian Pilistu) was borrowed into Greek, then Italian, French and German. Philistine (1831) now means an uncultured person. Arab, first recorded in English in 1398, developed another sense by 1848: “homeless child, wandering the streets”.

Rapid, widespread borrowing and meaning shift are now promoted by electronic reporting on international affairs. Much of the English-speaking world has experienced Arabic society through the crafted media lens, which tends to focus on Islamic conflict – and is as limited as perceiving Australians only according to their participation in wars in Vietnam and Iraq. It is also tied in with religious and political ideologies. Jihad (1869) started in English with the Arabic meaning of “struggle, contest, effort in any field” and the specific Islamic-referenced “Muslim Holy War”. By 1880 it also meant “any doctrinal struggle”. Jihad is positive in Arabic, but its English sense of “Holy war against the Infidels” has developed negative connotations more equivalent to “Un-holy war”. In English, mujahidiin is now used to refer to an Islamic warrior, as in “foreign mujahidiin crossing the borders to help Iraqis fight off the Coalition”. However, in some varieties of Arabic, mujaahid most properly refers to someone fighting an invader (as in Afghanistan) whereas someone involved in a government-sanctioned struggle of resistance is a muqaawama. Fedayeen is currently used in English to mean “a commando or guerrilla”, or “Iraqi special forces”, whereas in Arabic it is “one who offers up his life for another, or devotees of several religious and political groups”. Lastly, the Arabic word Talibaan means “students, searchers for truth” or the proper name of a political party but in English it refers only to the former ruling party of Afghanistan.

This current concentration of borrowings from the fields of religion and politics, and the frequent adaptation of their English meaning towards a sense of conflict, suggests a narrowing in the perception of the Arabic world, after a rich history of borrowings from areas as diverse as scholarship, leisure pursuits, and trade.

  ** A useful source for word etymologies is available on the internet at:
http://www.etymonline.com/

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