Arabic influence on the Spanish language has been significant, due to the Islamic presence in the Iberian peninsula between 711 and 1492 A.D. (see Al-Andalus).
Modern day Spanish language (also called castellano in Spanish) first appeared in the small Christian Kingdom of Castile in Northern Spain during this period of Islamic domination over most of the Iberian peninsula. As a result, the language was influenced by Andalusi Arabic practically from its inception. Arabic imprint on the language increased as the Kingdom of Castile expanded into Muslim lands where the Castilian language had never been spoken and as arabized Christians (Mozarabs) from Al Andalus emigrated northwards during times of sectarian violence, and particularly as a result of the Almoravid conquest in the 12th century. Although the degree to which Arabic percolated the peninsula is the subject of academic debate, it is generally agreed that Arabic was used among the local elites and local Arabic-influenced Romance dialects, known collectively as Mozarabic were more prevalent as the vernacular language. Only the kingdom of Granada, under the Nasrid dynasty was totally arabized after many centuries of Muslim rule.
Modern Spanish is thus a mixture of Old Castilian and the Mozarabic dialects which it absorbed. This fusion explains why Spanish has, in many cases, both Latin and Arabic derived words for the same meaning. For example, aceituna and oliva (olive), alacrán and escorpión (scorpion), jaqueca and migraña (migraine) or alcancía and hucha (piggy bank). The imprint of Mozarabic and Arabic is evidently more noticeable in the southern dialects of Peninsular Spanish than in the northern ones.
A small number of words have also been borrowed from Moroccan Arabic both due to geographic proximity, but principally as a result of Spain's protectorate over Spanish Morocco in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Although the influence of Arabic on Spanish is fundamentally lexical, other influences are briefly examined in this article.
Lexical influence
It is estimated that there are over four thousand Arabic loanwords in the Spanish language (including derivations) and well over one thousand Arabic roots, making up around 8% of the Spanish vocabulary . This makes Arabic the largest influence on Spanish after Latin.
A majority of these are nouns, with a more limited number of verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions, thus not substantially changing the grammar or basic structure of the language. The exact number of words of Arabic origin in Spanish is not known and many words not included on this list are regionalisms: words which are used in certain parts of Spain and/or Latin America but are generally unknown elsewhere.
List of words of Arabic origin
This is an open list of Spanish words acquired directly from Classical and Andalusi Arabic, listed in alphabetical order. This list includes the Spanish meaning of the word as well as the Arabic etymology. Be aware that many words in the list are now obsolete or seldom used. No fixed standard of Arabic transliteration is used.
Rationale for inclusion
Due to the heavy influence of Arabic on Spanish, this list is relatively restrictive:
- This list has been edited to include only words which are considered to appertain to the Spanish language and the Hispanic culture and society. Arabic words which may be understood by Spanish speakers, but remain foreign to the Hispanic civilisation such as Ayatolá, Yihad, or Chiita, are excluded from this list.
- Only words which have passed directly from Arabic are included. Arabic words which entered the Spanish language through other, non-Iberian, Indo-European languages (such as Ayatolá , Beduino , Sofá , or sorbete ) are not included.
- Generally, only Spanish root words are listed, derivations not being included. For example, aceite (from az-zeit , oil) is included but not aceitería , aceitero , aceitón or aceitoso . On the other hand, aceituna (olive) is included since it derives not from az-zeit but from az-zeituna in Arabic, even though the root of the Arabic word is the same. Aceituno (olive tree), on the other hand, would not be included, since it shares the same root as aceituna . An exception to this rule may be made when the derived word is much more commonly used than the root word, when the meaning of the derivative has no evident connection with the root word or when it is not clear that one is derived from the other (e.g. horro and ahorrar).
- Words derived from Mozarabic are not included (Mozarabic being fundamentally a Romance language), unless the Mozarabic word is itself derived from classical or Andalusi Arabic.
- Words acquired from Berber or Hebrew (or other Afro-Asiatic languages) are not included.
The etymology and meaning of most of these words can be verified on the site of the Real Academia de la Lengua Española, although a small minority are only available in other sources or past editions of this dictionary.
A (Ababol to Alguaza)
- ababol : Poppy. In Aragon, Navarre, Albacete and Murcia. From Andalusian Arabic Happapáwr , a fusion of the Arabic word Hab (حب) "seed" and the Latin papāver .
- abacero : owner of an abacería , small food shop. From Andalusi Arabic SaHb azzád (صاحب الزاد) "owner of the supplies."
- abadí : descendant/lineage of Mohammed ben Abad , founder of the Taifa Kingdom of Seville in the 11th century AD. From Andalusi Arabic abbadi (عبّادي).
- abalorio : cheap jewelery or jewelery beads. From Andalusi Arabic al balluri (البلوري) "made of glass."
- abarraz : stavesacre ( Delphinium staphisagria ), a medicinal plant. From Andalusi Arabic Hab ar-ras (حب الرأس) "head seeds."
- abasí : pertaining to the Abbasid dynasty, which overthrew the Umayyads in the 8th century.
- abelmosco : musk seeds, an aromatic plant. From Andalusi Arabic Hab el musk (حب المسك) literally "musk seeds."
- abencerraje : used in expression: " Zegríes y abencerrajes ", which means "partisans of opposite interests". The Abencerrajes (in Arabic aban as-sarrá ǧ ) was an Arabic family of the Kingdom of Granada, rivals of the Zegríes in the 15th century.
- abenuz : ebony. From Arabic abanus (أبنوس) of the same meaning.
- abismal : screw in head of a spear. From Arabic al-mismar (المسمار) "nail."
- abitaque : a cut of wood used in construction of a certain shape and dimension. From Arabic Tabaqa (طبقة) "layer" or "intermediate chamber."
- acebibe : raisin. From Arabic zabib (زبيب) of the same meaning.
- acebuche : wild olive tree, or wood from such a tree. From Andalusi Arabic azzabbú ǧ .
- aceche : copper, iron or zinc sulphate. From Arabic zā ǧ .
- aceifa : Muslim summer military expedition. From Arabic Sa'ifah "harvest" or "summer expedition."
- aceite : oil. From Arabic az-zayt (الزيت) "oil."
- aceituna : olive. From Arabic الزيتون ( az-zaytun ) "olive."
- aceituní : precious cloth from the Orient. From Arabic az-zaytuni , a possible adaptation of the Chinese city Tsö-Thung.
- acelga : chard. From Arabic as-silqa of the same meaning.
- acémila : beast of burden; tax formerly paid in Spain. From Arabic az-zamilah "beast of burden."
- acemite : wheat husk; a type of wheat porridge. From Arabic as-samid (السميد).
- acenefa see cenefa .
- aceña : watermill. From Arabic as-saniyah "the lifter."
- acequia : irrigation canal. From Arabic as-saqiyah (الساقية)"the irrigator."
- acerola : fruit of the tree Malpighia emarginata or glabra, generally found in the Americas, of the Malpighiaceae family. This should be differentiated from the European service tree, Sorbus domestica, family Rosaceae. From Arabic zu 'rūrah (زعرورة). Originally from Syriac za‘rārā .
- acetre : bucket or Cauldron used to extract water from a well; small cauldron used to spray holy water in Christian liturgy. From Arabic as-saTl (السطل).
- aciar : (or acial ): instrument used
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