Words of Arabic origin

I’ve recently written about Spanish words which originate from English, so I thought for a change I’d look at another source of Spanish vocabulary, namely Arabic.

You only have to look at a map to realize just how close Spain is to north Africa, and although not everyone wishes to recognize it, the influence of the Moors in Spain is still evident it its music, architecture, agriculture and of course its language. This is hardly surprising if you take into account that they dominated most of the peninsula for nearly 800 years.

There are many thousands of words which we could look at as examples of this influence, so I have just picked out a few of the most wellknown ones. A lot of them begin with the letter ‘ a’ and ‘ al’ meaning ‘ the’. Here is the first batch: ‘ aceituna, azúcar, arroz, alcohol’, obviously all related to food and drink.

Also the in same category are everybody’s favourite word ‘ zanahoria’ ( carrot) and every child’s favourite food ‘ espinacas’ ( spinach). Artichokes or ‘ alcachofas’ are another example of the kind of produce introduced into this area by the Moors, as well, of course, as the allpervading ‘ naranja’.

Here are a couple of ‘ people’ words of Arabic origin: ‘ alcalde’ meaning mayor and ‘ albañil’ meaning bricklayer or builder. That last word is a bit of a mouthful, especially in the form ‘ albañilería’ meaning the service or activity of bricklaying.

My alltime favourite Spanish word ‘ azul’ also comes from the Moors, as does my favourite material ‘ algodón’ ( cotton). The Moors were ingenious people too, and brought us ‘ algebra’ ( to the dismay of generations of school children), ‘ ajedrez’ ( chess) and the concept of zero or ‘ cero’.

I don’t want to get too historical here because I believe some of these concepts come from more ancient cultures still and were transmitted to Europe via the Moors, however, this does not detract from our point about the influence of their language on modern Spanish.

The word ‘ alcázar’ comes from the Moorish word for ‘ castle’ and this is evident in the names of many monuments and also towns. Here on the Mar Menor we have the town of ‘ Los Alcázares’ meaning the castles.

Now we have got on to the subject of place names, the influence of the Moors is absolutely incredible. There are thousands of place names of Arab origin. Alicante is the nearest most obvious one, and Benidorm is another.

All the names beginning with ‘ Al’ and ‘ Ben’ can be traced back the same way. Here in Murcia ( also a Moorish name) there is a town called ‘ Alcantarilla’.

This word has the less than attractive meaning of ‘ drains’ in modern Spanish, but it actually harks back to the highly technical and efficient hydraulic systems used in this part of the world to irrigate such rich but dry lands for cultivation.

Another part of this water network was the ‘ acequia’ or water channel. The area in Torrevieja called ‘ Acequión’ comes from this root and means large water channel. Water was stored in ‘ aljibes’, or underground water tank, of which there are still many in existence. Some have been turned to other uses, including a small museum in Torrevieja’s Park of Nations.

Perhaps the most interesting place name is that of a small military stronghold created by the Moors in the centre of the peninsular, which they named ‘ Magarit’.

Many centuries later this would turn into the Spanish capital city Madrid, and if you listen today to the Spanish pronunciation, you can still hear echoes of the Moorish name, as you can also hear those guttural sounds of Arabic still evident in modern Spanish speech patterns.