Spanish words with Arabic origin

Spanish words with Arabic origin If you’ve ever studied Spanish, even just a little, you might have realized that our language shares lots of cognates with other Romance languages such as Portuguese, French, Italian or even Romanian (although this one got lots of influence from their neighboring Slavic languages, but still, it’s a Romance language). You may have also noticed that some of the vocabulary is strangely similar to the English one, like all those “-tion” ending words (you’ve got the Normans to thank for there). But, had you ever heard that Spanish has a great amount of words with an Arabic origin? Cool, right? Most of these words come from the Arabic which was spoken in the Iberian Peninsula (Spanish Arabic) between the 7th and the 15th centuries, which means that they are likely to no longer be understandable for an Arabic speaker, but some still are! I’ll add a link to a video which illustrates this very well at the end of the post. By the way, you’ll see that lots of these words begin with “a-” or “al-“. The reason is that those are articles in Arabic which were kept when introducing the words into Spanish. So basically if you say “el azúcar” (the sugar), you’re technically saying “the the sugar”. Other languages, like French, Catalan, Italian or even English in this case adopted the words without the Arabic article, giving us “sucre”, “zucchero” and “sugar” respectively.

A non-exhaustive list of day-to-day words with Arabic origin Little clarification: Although all of this words got to Spanish through Arabic (except “café”, “jirafa”, “algebra”, “algoritmo” and “máscara” which came through Latin and Italian), some of them originated in other languages such as Persian or Sanskrit from which Arabic borrowed them. Food & Kitchen Aceite (Spanish Arabic – azzáyt, Classical Arabic – azzayt) – Oil Aceituna (Spanish Arabic – azzaytúna, Classical Arabic – zaytünah) – Olive Azafrán (Spanish Arabic – azza’farán, Classical Arabic – za‘farān) – Saffron Azúcar (Spanish Arabic – assúkkar, Classical Arabic – sukkar) – Sugar Berenjena (Spanish Arabic – baḏinǧána, Classical Arabic – bāḏinǧānah) – Aubergine/Eggplant Café (Italian – caffe, Turkish – kahve, Classical Arabic – qahwah) – Coffee Fideo (Spanish Arabic – fidáwš) – Noodles Jarabe (Spanish Arabic – šaráb, Classical Arabic – šarāb) – Syrup (medication) Jarra (Spanish Arabic – ǧárra, Classical Arabic – ǧarrah) – Jar/Mug Limón (Spanish Arabic – la[y]mún, Classical Arabic – laymün) – Lemon Lima (Spanish Arabic – lima, Classical Arabic – līmah) – Lime Naranja (Spanish Arabic – naranǧa, Classical Arabic – nāranǧ) – Orange Sandía (Spanish Arabic – sandíyya, Classical Arabic – sindiyyah) – Watermelon Taza (Spanish Arabic – ṭássa, Classical Arabic – ṭast) – Mug/Cup Zanahoria (Spanish Arabic – safunnárya) – Carrot Nature & Animals Algodón (Spanish Arabic – alquṭún, Classical Arabic – quṭn) – Cotton Arrecife (Spanish Arabic – arraṣíf, Classical Arabic – raṣīf) – Reef Jabalí (Spanish Arabic – ǧabalí, Classical Arabic – ǧabalī) – Boar Jirafa (Italian – giraffa, Classical Arabic – zurāfah or zarāfah) – Giraffe Marfil (Spanish Arabic –‘aẓm alfíl) – Ivory (literally, “elephant bone”) Tabaco (Classical Arabic – ṭub[b]āq) – Tobacco

Grammar & Interjections Hasta (Spanish Arabic – ḥattá) – Until Ojalá (Spanish Arabic – law šá lláh) – Let’s hope/hopefully/God willing (literally “if God wills”) ¡Olé!

Science & Hobbies Ajedrez (Spanish Arabic – aššaṭranǧ or aššiṭranǧ, Classical Arabic – šiṭranǧ) – Chess Alcohol (Spanish Arabic – kuḥúl, Classical Arabic – kuḥl) – Alcohol Alfil (Spanish Arabic – alfíl, Classical Arabic – fīl) – Bishop (chess) Álgebra (Latin – algĕbra, Classical Arabic – alǧabru) – Algebra Algoritmo (Latin – algobarismus, Classical Arabic – ḥisābu lḡubār) – Algorithm Dado (Classical Arabic – a‘dād) – Dice Other words Alcalde (Spanish Arabic – alqáḍi, Classical Arabic – qāḍī) – Mayor (literally “judge”) Aldea (Spanish Arabic – aḍḍáy‘a, Classical Arabic – ḍay‘ah) – Small village Alfombra (Spanish Arabic – alḥánbal, Classical Arabic – ḥanbal) – Carpet/Rug Almohada (Spanish Arabic – almuẖádda, Classical Arabic – miẖaddah) – Pillow Alquiler (Spanish Arabic – alkirá or alkirí, Classical Arabic – kirā’) – Rent Asesino (Arabic – ḥaššāšīn) – Murderer Barrio (Spanish Arabic – bárri, Classical Arabic – barrī) – Neighborhood Guitarra (Arabic – qīṯārah, Aramaic – qipārā, Greek – κιθάρα, kithára) – Guitar Hazaña (Spanish Arabic – ḥasána, Classical Arabic – ḥasanah) – Feat Máscara (Italian – maschera, Arabic – masẖarah) – Mask (literally “object of laughter”) Mazmorra (Spanish Arabic – maṭmúra, Classical Arabic – maṭmūrah) – Dungeon Momia (Classical Arabic – mūmiyā) – Mummy Noria (Spanish Arabic – na‘úra, Classical Arabic – nā‘ūrah) – Waterwheel/Ferris wheel Tarea (Spanish Arabic – ṭaríḥa, Classical Arabic root – {ṭrḥ}) – Task