Arabic Words That Come from Latin or Greek

[Pacifica]

مرجان - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Originally Iranian, though, apparently...

 

[Pacifica]

جنس - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

 

[Pacifica]

زبرجد - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

 

[interprete]

زبرجد - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

That’s an intriguing case, because when you look up the Greek word which this Arabic word is claimed to be derived from, Wiktionary says this same Greek word is of Semitic origin, with related words in Hebrew and Arabic...

 

[interprete]

فسيفساء - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

en.wiktionary.org

 

[lrnlang]

صراط - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

en.wiktionary.org

 

[Pacifica]

That was the very first one I shared. It bears a reminder, though!

 

[Clemens]

That was the very first one I shared. It bears a reminder, though!

Late Antiquity never ceases to fascinate me.

 

[lrnlang]

You're right. I posted it by mistake. I wanted to post this one which I found surprising:

شرطة - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

en.wiktionary.org

 

[Pacifica]

You're right. I posted it by mistake. I wanted to post this one which I found surprising:

شرطة - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

en.wiktionary.org

I knew that word but wasn't aware of its origin!

 

[Clemens]

Interesting! Although the word I'm familiar with hearing is بوليس which might count as well?

 

[lrnlang]

بوليس is also used informally too, and yes, it counts as a Latin-origin word:
late 15th century (in the sense ‘public order’): from French, from medieval Latin politia ‘citizenship, government’

 

[Pacifica]

What I had in mind when I created the thread were older borrowings rather than ones that came via modern languages, but I didn't make that clear.

 

[Pacifica]

This one is ultimately Gaulish, it seems; but as it still came through both Latin and Greek, I'll put it here:

بريد - Wiktionary, the free dictionary