Italian words from Arabic
6 Italian words with Arabic in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
assassino
Its source is the plural borrowed from Arabic حَشَّاشِين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users”), the name the Crusaders gave to the members of the Nizari Ismaili sect led by the “Old Man of the Mountain”…
gara
The origin is uncertain. DELI calls it a word of unknown origin, but thinks worth further study the proposal that it is borrowed from Arabic غارة (ġāra, “raid, foray”), which entered Spanish with…
magazzino
It is borrowed from Arabic مَخَازِن (maḵāzin, “storehouses”), the plural of مَخْزَن (maḵzan, “storehouse”), from the root of خَزَنَ (ḵazana, “to store”). GRADIT gives the source as a variant form of…
ragazzo
Its origin has been much debated. Most dictionaries follow the explanation proposed independently by Giovan Battista Pellegrini (1960) and Joan Corominas (1962), which Ascanio Persio had already put…
sceriffo
1. The sheriff is borrowed from English sheriff, from Old English scīrġerēfa, a compound of scīr (“shire, county”) and ġerēfa (“reeve, magistrate”). DELI dates the English word to about 1034…
tazza
It is borrowed from Arabic طَاس (ṭās, “cup, bowl”), which DELI, Devoto–Oli and Treccani quote with the ending ⟨-a⟩. DELI thinks the word reached the whole of western Europe probably from the ports…