arab

Forms

arab m or n (feminine singular arabă, masculine plural arabi, feminine/neuter plural arabe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French arabe, also borrowed from Latin Arabus, according to DELR, DEX and MDA2;^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Wiktionary and DLRM give only the French.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Latin adjective is a parallel form of Arabs.^[6] It comes from Ancient Greek Ἄραψ (Áraps), a word of Arabic origin, probably from the root ⟨ʿ-r-b⟩ with the basic sense “desert”.^[2] Gabinschi counts it among the European loans of Arabic origin, with French, German and Russian as its models.^[7]

The older form ⟨arav⟩ is of Slavonic origin, with Modern Greek Ἄραψ (Áraps) as a second model.^[2] Tiktin dates the word to Coresi's Apostol of 1563, but DELR gives that record to aravlean, which it derives from the Slavonic plural.^[8][2] The popular doublet arap, also harap, is a loan from Ottoman Turkish, Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the variant arav in Nicolae Milescu's translation of the Septuagint (1665–1685), where it names the Arabs.^[2] The form arab is first recorded in Bobb's dictionary of 1822.^[2] MDA2 cites Ion Neculce's chronicle as its first record.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the people of Arabia; as an adjective it means Arab or Arabic, and the feminine araba is the Arabic language.^[2][3] Older dictionaries treat it as a synonym of harap: Costinescu (1870) gives Arabŭ saŭ harapŭ, and Barcianu (1886) also glosses it “Moor, Negro”.^[9][10] Set phrases include cifră arabă “Arabic numeral”, opposed to Roman numerals, and cal arab “Arab horse”.^[3][11]

A family of learned words grew around it: aravicesc “Arabic” is recorded in 1771 and arabic in 1832, arabism in 1855 and arabist in 1878.^[2]

Timeline

• 1665–1685 – the variant arav in Milescu's Septuagint translation.^[2]
• 1771 – the adjective aravicesc “Arabic”.^[2]
• 1822 – the form arab in Bobb's dictionary.^[2]
• 1830 – arabesc “arabesque”.^[2]
• 1832 – arabic “Arabic”.^[2]
• 1855 – arabism.^[2]
• 1878 – arabist.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An Arab: a member of the main population of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa.^[3][4][1]
2. (feminine, araba) The Arabic language.^[3][2]

Adjective

1. Arab, Arabic: belonging to the Arabs or the Arab countries; arabic, arăbesc.^[3][4] cifră arabă “Arabic numeral”, cal arab “Arab horse”.^[3]

Word family

• arabesc
• arabic
• arabism
• arabist
• arabistică
• arabiza
• arăbesc
• arăbește
• arăboaică

Related words

• harap
• aravlean

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. arab
3. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 57
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 86
5. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 38
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 111
8. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. arab
9. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 60
10. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 32
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 113