Arabic Contributions to the English Vocabulary: English Words of Arabic Origin: Etymology and History

Arabic Contributions to the English Vocabulary:  English Words of Arabic Origin: Etymology and History

by Habeeb Salloum; James Peters

Arabic Contributions to the English Vocabulary is a definitive lexicon detailing the impact of Arabic on the English vocabulary and listing English words of Arabic origin which include about 3000 entries with another almost 4800 derivatives for a total of 7800 English words all of Arabic origin.

English today has thousands of words in all fields of human endeavor which are of Arabic origin: in architecture, agriculture, art, astronomy, commerce, geography, industry, literature, mathematics, mechanics, medicine, music, and physics.

A study of the Skeats Etymological Dictionary indicates that Arabic is the 7th on the list of languages that have contributed to the enrichment of the English vocabulary.

Arabic Contributions to the English Vocabulary will help to break the almost perfect silence that surrounds the Arabic contribution in times past to the science, technology and culture of the West.

Habeeb Salloum is a Canadian author who grew up in Saskatchewan, joined the RCAF during the Second World War, and then worked for the Canadian Department of National Revenue for 36 years. For the last 30 years he has been a full-time freelance writer and author specializing in food, history and travel. Besides 7 books and 20 chapters in books, he has had hundreds of articles about culture, food, travel, history and homesteading in western Canada appear in such publications as the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the Western Producer, Contemporary Review, Forever Young, Vegetarian Journal and Saveur. 

Among his most important published books are: From the Lands of Figs and Olives: Over 300 Delicious and Unusual Recipes from the Middle East and North Africa (Interlink Publishing, 1996); Journeys Back to Arab Spain (The Middle East Studies Center, 1994); Arabic Contributions to the English Vocabulary (Librairie du Liban, 1996); Classic Vegetarian Cooking From the Middle East and North Africa (Interlink Publishing, 2000); Arab Cooking On A Saskatchewan Homestead: Recipes And Recollections (CPRC, University of Regina. 2005) – winner of the Cuisine Canada and The University of Guelph’s Silver Canadian Culinary Book Awards in 2006, Bison Delights (CPRC, University of Regina, 2010) and The Arabian Nights Cookbook (Tuttle Publishing, 2010). He co-authored with Leila Salloum Elias and Muna Salloum, two major research studies on medieval Arab cookery: Scheherazade’s Feasts: Foods of the Medieval Arab World (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013); and Sweet Delights from A Thousand and One Nights: The Story of Traditional Arab Sweets (I.B. Tauris, London, UK, 2013). His most recent cookbook published in the Fall of 2014 is Asian Cooking Made Simple: A Culinary Journey Along the Silk Road and Beyond (Sweet Grass Books/Far Country Press, 2014).

Habeeb was awarded the 2013 Saskatchewan Tourism Travel Media Award by Saskatchewan Tourism (Provincial Government of Saskatchewan) on April 10, 2014 for his literary work on travel, tourism and the culinary arts of that province.

Language: English / Arabic
ISBN:  N/A
1996, Hardback, 142 pages, 18.5 x 24.5 cm

Book Condition: New
Publisher: Librairie du Liban