Skip to main content
  • English
  • Deutsch
  • عربي

Qantara.de - Dialog mit der islamischen Welt

  • Home
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Essays
  • Photo Essays
  • Home
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Topics
  • Essays
  • Photo Essays

smartphone menu rubriken

  • Home
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Topics
  • Dialogues
  • Essays
  • Photo Essays
  • Letters to the Editors
Back to start
More Photo Essays

Sofa, coffee, sugar – English words from Arabic

Some words are immediately recognisable as having Arabic origins, others not at all. So what is the deal with sugar, sofa and mattress? By Dagmar Breitenbach

Wine glasses, different shapes, filled with colourful liquid (photo: Karlosk - Fotolia.com)

Alcohol: "alco(h)ol vini" – the "finest of wine" is how the physician Paracelsus described wine distillate in 1527. Originally, however, the word alcohol goes back to a popular cosmetic, namely Arabic "al-kull", kohl eyeshadow made from crushed minerals, in alchemy a "fine powder". In the 17th century, "alcohol vini" was produced and distributed in pharmacies

Cafe Americano (photo: Imago/Levine-Roberts)

Coffee: Yemeni Sufi monks were probably the first to make a drink from African coffee beans, which they called "qahwa". The stimulating beverage reached Constantinople in the 16th century via Mecca, Cairo and Damascus, where it was called "qahve". Through diplomatic channels, the drink made it to Paris in 1669, quickly became fashionable – and shortly afterwards also found its way to England

Sugar cubes in a cup (photo: picture-alliance/dpa/Bildagentur-online)

Sugar: coffee – with sugar? This is another Arabic word, "sukkar", but the Arabs borrowed it from the ancient Indian "sarkara". The Europeans got to know and love sugar as a medicine and sweet during the Crusades and through trade around the Mediterranean. In Italy it is called "zucchero", "azucar" in Spanish, "sucre" in France and "Zucker" in German

Mattress: the Arabic word "matrah" means "the place where something is thrown" – a pile of padded cushions. In the 13th century, cushions were referred to as "matraz" in the German "Nibelungenlied". Back then they were often silk-covered, embroidered luxury objects transmitted through the French chivalrous tradition. Mattress is still called "Matratze" in German, the French say "matelas" and the Italians "materasso"

Sleeping person on an orange sofa (photo: picture-alliance/Bildagentur-online/Tetra)

Sofa: Here, too, Europeans adopted Islamic living culture. In Germany, the French word "soffa" is first documented in 1694, originally in Arabic a stone bench, a podium and later in Turkish a raised ruler's seat upholstered with cushions, "sofa". At the beginning of the 18th century in Europe, the word also described bench-like wall projections furnished with cushions

Magazines (photo: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Horsten)

Magazine: "Makzan" in Arabic was the place where something was stored and kept. The word came to Europe through trade; in mediaeval markets it was used to describe a warehouse. Whether Rolling Stone, Weightwatchers, or Men's Health, the word "magazine" is nothing more than a place to collect texts, information and photos

Giraffe running through the savannah (photo: Imago/Anka Agency International)

Giraffe: the English word for the long-necked animal from Africa goes back – via Italian – to the Arabic "zarafa", where it may in turn have been borrowed from Ethiopian. European antiquity was familiar with the animal: Julius Caesar had a giraffe carried along on his triumphal procession in Rome. At that time, however, the exotic giraffe was thought to be a hybrid creature and was called "camel panther" for a long time

PausePlay
PrevNext
  • ‎‎‎Newest
  • Most Read
  1. Joe Biden and U.S. policy on Turkey

    No more special privileges for Recep Tayyip Erdogan

  2. Merymen Alaoui's "Straight from the Horse’s Mouth"

    A fiercely enjoyable feminist fairytale

  3. Islamisation, a racist conspiracy theory

    The hatred of Hanau and its enablers

  4. Yassin al-Haj Saleh on the Arab Spring's revolutionary legacy

    "The Syrian revolution is resumable today and tomorrow"

  5. Sectarian strife in Pakistan

    Syria's proxy war widens gulf between Sunnis and Shias

  6. Preparing for Pope Francis' visit

    The scant remains of Iraq's ancient Christian community

  1. Joe Biden and U.S. policy on Turkey

    No more special privileges for Recep Tayyip Erdogan

  2. Teenage pregnancies in Pakistan

    What sex education is really about

  3. "What is Islamic art?" with art historian Wendy Shaw

    What is art, when the primary sensory organ is the heart?

  4. Yassin al-Haj Saleh on the Arab Spring's revolutionary legacy

    "The Syrian revolution is resumable today and tomorrow"

  5. Interview with a mixed-faith couple

    Experiences in a Christian-Muslim marriage

  6. UAE and Sheikh Maktoum under pressure

    Dubai's double standards – where is Princess Latifa?

In brief

  • Hundreds of schoolgirls missing in northwest Nigeria after kidnapping

  • Hungary asylum restrictions broke European law, says top EU legal adviser

  • Spanish enclave closure plunges Morocco town into crisis

  • UK Supreme Court to rule on return of "IS bride" Begum

More
Social media
and networks
Subscribe to our
newsletter

Most Recent Photo Essay

Dhaka: rickshaw capital of the world

Urban transport concepts in the global South, often promoted by organisations such as the World Bank, aim to encourage motorised private transport – at the expense of non-motorised forms, which have proven cheap and environmentally friendly there over the past century. In Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, bans are being imposed on bicycle rickshaws on more and more roads. By Dominik Müller

  • Home
  • Politics
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Topics
  • Dialogues
  • Essays
  • Photo Essays
  • Letters to the Editors
  • About us
  • Masthead
  • Privacy Policy