Arabic Loanwords in Italian and Portuguese, by Root

Which Arabic words do Italian and Portuguese speakers already know?

Hundreds, mostly words for food, trade, the sea and science: zucchero and açúcar (sugar, سُكَّر), magazzino and armazém (storehouse, مَخْزَن), tariffa and tarifa (تَعْرِيف), cifra and zero (صِفْر). Portuguese has many more, often with the Arabic article still attached, as in azeite (زَيْت) and arroz (أَرُزّ). Grouped by root, one familiar word opens a family: تَعْرِيف sits beside عَرَفَ (he knew) and مَعْرِفَة (knowledge).

How many Arabic words are in Italian and Portuguese?

Nobody can give one reliable number, because the published counts measure different things. For Portuguese, the language service Ciberdúvidas quotes the philologist Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos: about a thousand words of Arabic origin. The lexicographer António Houaiss counted at least 800 Arabic words among the 3,000 to 3,200 words of early Portuguese, roughly a quarter of that vocabulary. Adalberto Alves’s Dicionário de Arabismos (2013) reaches 18,073 terms by counting derived and indirect forms as well.

For Italian there is no comparable headline figure. Marco Mancini’s entry “Arabismi” in Treccani’s Enciclopedia dell’Italiano (2010) describes where the words came from and which fields they fill, and gives no total. The difference between the two languages is real even without a number: Italian’s Arabic words cluster in trade, the sea, food and science, while Portuguese has them in the kitchen, the house, the village and the map.

Ciberdúvidas adds a comparison: Spanish has roughly twice as many Arabic words as Portuguese, which the answer ties to dates. Arab rule in what is now Portugal ended in 1250, while Granada fell only in 1492. The figures differ because the units differ: dictionary headwords, derived forms, living words or archaic ones. This article gives no count of its own.

Why group loanwords by Arabic root?

An Arabic root is a set of consonants, usually three, that carries a core meaning, and most words are built by fitting that root into a pattern. Grouping loanwords by root shows you Arabic words you have never studied but can already half-read, because you already own one member of the family.

Take ع·ر·ف. Treccani traces tariffa to Arabic taʿrīfa, “notification, information”, and Portuguese tarifa has the same source. In Fasaha’s dictionary تَعْرِيف (definition; notification) belongs with عَرَفَ (he knew), مَعْرِفَة (knowledge) and مَعْرُوف (known, well known). A price list turns out to be something made known.

Take خ·ز·ن, the root of keeping and storing. Treccani derives magazzino from مَخَازِن, the plural of مَخْزَن, from a verb meaning to keep or to store, and Portuguese armazém keeps the article: المَخْزَن. The pattern مَفْعَل makes a place noun, the place where the action happens. The same pattern gives مَكْتَب (office; desk), the place of writing, and مَطْعَم (restaurant), the place of eating.

Take ش·ر·ب, the root of drinking. Treccani derives sciroppo, through medieval Latin sirupus, from Arabic sharāb, “drink”; Portuguese xarope comes from the same word, شَرَاب. Its verb is شَرِبَ, he drank, one of the first verbs a learner meets.

The article al- that Portuguese kept and Italian dropped

Many Portuguese words of Arabic origin begin with a- or al- because the Arabic definite article, اَلْ, was borrowed together with the noun. Before about half of the Arabic consonants the l of the article is pronounced as the next consonant: az-zayt, ar-ruzz, as-sukkar. That is why Portuguese says azeite, arroz and açúcar, and why Wikipedia’s list of Portuguese words of Arabic origin notes that most of them are easy to spot by their a(l)- beginning.

Italian received most of its Arabic words through trade, through Latin and through Sicily, and usually without the article: zucchero beside açúcar, magazzino beside armazém, cotone beside algodão, all from سُكَّر, مَخْزَن and قُطْن. A few words kept the article in both languages because they entered through science: algebra and álgebra from الجَبْر, alcol and álcool from الكُحْل, alchimia and alquimia from the Arabic كِيمِيَاء with its article.

There is a practical consequence for a reader. To find a Portuguese al- word in an Arabic dictionary, take the article off first: almofada leads to مِخَدَّة (pillow), aldeia to ضَيْعَة (an estate, a farmstead), alface to خَسّ (lettuce), azeitona to زَيْتُون (olives). Without the article the Arabic word is often shorter than the Portuguese one.

Where the meaning drifted

A loanword can look like its Arabic source and still mean something else. Customs is the classic case. Treccani derives dogana from دِيوَان, “register, office”, and Portuguese aduana has the same origin. In Arabic دِيوَان still names a government office and also a collection of poems; the Italian word narrowed to the office where goods are taxed.

Admirals drifted too. Treccani derives ammiraglio from أَمِير, “commander”, with an ending it calls not clearly explained, and notes that the title became naval in Norman Sicily. Portuguese almirante belongs to the same history. The Arabic word has no sea in it: أَمِير is a commander or a prince, from the root أ·م·ر of ordering and command.

The dockyard is a longer story. Treccani traces darsena, through Genoese, and arsenale, through Venetian arzanà, to دَار الصِّنَاعَة, “the house of industry” or “the house of the craft”. One Arabic phrase became two Italian words, a dock and an arsenal, and neither sounds like its source any more.

Some words are not built on a root at all. Portuguese algarismo (digit) and algoritmo come from الخَوَارِزْمِيّ, the name of the mathematician al-Khwārizmī, not from a three-letter root. Italian cifra and zero, and Portuguese zero, go back to صِفْر, “empty; zero”, a real root word. Oxalá, “hopefully” in Portuguese, is traced in Wikipedia’s list to the Arabic phrase إِنْ شَاءَ اللهُ, “if Allah wills”.

Why Italian and Portuguese took different words

Portuguese took Arabic words from daily life, because Arabic was spoken for centuries in the land that became Portugal. The words sit in the kitchen (azeite, arroz, alface, açúcar), the house (almofada), the settlement (aldeia) and the map. Ciberdúvidas lists Algarve from الغَرْب, “the west”, and Alcântara from القَنْطَرَة, “the bridge”.

Italian took its Arabic words along three routes that Mancini names in Treccani: stable bilingualism in Arab Sicily between 827 and 1091, the trade of Venice, Genoa and Pisa with the Islamic Mediterranean, and Latin translations of Arabic works on medicine, mathematics and astronomy. The trade route gave magazzino, dogana, tariffa and darsena; the scholarly route gave cifra, algebra and alambicco. Sicily also kept Arabic in its place names, among them Caltanissetta, Calatafimi and Gibellina, whose Calta-, Cala- and Gibel- are generally traced to قَلْعَة (fortress) and جَبَل (mountain).

Both languages share many words that travelled further before Arabic passed them on. Arancia and laranja come from نَارَنْج, which Arabic took from Persian; zafferano and açafrão come from زَعْفَرَان. For these words the Arabic form is a station on the road rather than the start of it, and the root method does not apply.

What a loanword head start does and does not give you

Knowing that zucchero is سُكَّر helps you remember the Arabic word, and knowing that tariffa belongs to ع·ر·ف lets you guess at مَعْرِفَة the first time you meet it. That is a real advantage, and it grows as you learn more roots.

It is not reading. Arabic is written right to left, most letters change shape inside a word, and everyday texts leave the short vowels out, so a reader has to recognise words from their consonants and their pattern. Grammar adds endings and agreements that no loanword prepares you for.

The useful order is the script first, then a small set of frequent words, then reading with a dictionary that shows each word’s root and family. The loanwords you already carry then work as anchors for whole families rather than as trivia.

Ten shared loanwords and the Arabic family behind each

Each card gives the word as Italian and Portuguese write it, in that order, then the Arabic form from Fasaha’s dictionary with its original meaning, its root and, where there is one, a relative.

1. zucchero · açúcar: سُكَّر — sugar
2. magazzino · armazém: مَخْزَن — storehouse
3. tariffa · tarifa: تَعْرِيف — definition; notification
4. sciroppo · xarope: شَرَاب — drink
5. cotone · algodão: قُطْن — cotton
6. cifra, zero · zero: صِفْر — zero; empty
7. algebra · álgebra: جَبْر — restoring; algebra
8. ammiraglio · almirante: أَمِير — commander; prince
9. dogana · aduana: دِيوَان — register; office
10. olio · azeite: زَيْت — oil

Words you already know

• arroz ← أَرُزّ (rice)
• azeite ← زَيْت (oil)
• azeitona ← زَيْتُون (olives)
• açúcar ← سُكَّر (sugar)
• almofada ← مِخَدَّة (pillow)
• aldeia ← ضَيْعَة (village estate)
• laranja ← نَارَنْج (bitter orange)
• armazém ← مَخْزَن (storeroom, warehouse)
• algodão ← قُطْن (cotton)
• álcool ← كُحْل (kohl)
• xarope ← شَرَاب (drink; syrup)
• taça ← طَاسَة (bowl, cup)
• açafrão ← زَعْفَرَان (saffron)
• jasmim ← يَاسَمِين (jasmine)
• limão ← لَيْمُون (lemon)
• álgebra ← جَبْر (algebra; setting (a bone))
• alquimia ← كِيمِيَاء (chemistry)
• tarifa ← تَعْرِيف (definition; tariff)
• califa ← خَلِيفَة (caliph; successor)
• almirante ← أَمِير (prince; commander)
• monção ← مَوْسِم (season)
• tamarindo ← تَمْر (dates (fruit))
• gazela ← غَزَال (gazelle)

Why does Portuguese have more Arabic words than Italian?

Portuguese grew up where Arabic was spoken for centuries, so it borrowed words of daily life: food, the house, farming, places. Italian met Arabic mainly in Sicily, in Mediterranean trade and in Latin translations of Arabic science, so its Arabic words concentrate in trade, the sea and scholarship.

Why do so many Portuguese words start with al- or a-?

Because the Arabic definite article اَلْ was borrowed together with the noun. Before many consonants its l is pronounced as the next consonant, which gives az- in azeite (الزَّيْت) and ar- in arroz (الأَرُزّ). To look such a word up in Arabic, remove the article first.

Do algarismo and algoritmo come from an Arabic root?

No. They come from الخَوَارِزْمِيّ, the name of the mathematician al-Khwārizmī, so there is no root family behind them. Cifra and zero do come from a root word, صِفْر, “empty; zero”.

If I know these loanwords, can I read Arabic?

Not yet. They give you anchors for vocabulary, but reading still needs the alphabet, the short vowels that texts usually omit, word patterns and grammar. The loanwords pay off once you read with a dictionary that shows roots, because each one then opens a family.

Sources

• Treccani, Enciclopedia dell’Italiano — Arabismi (Marco Mancini, 2010)
• Treccani Vocabolario — tariffa
• Treccani Vocabolario — magazzino
• Treccani Vocabolario — dogana
• Treccani Vocabolario — ammiraglio
• Treccani Vocabolario — darsena
• Treccani Vocabolario — arsenale
• Treccani Vocabolario — sciroppo
• Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa — Arabismos na língua portuguesa
• Ciberdúvidas da Língua Portuguesa — Palavras portuguesas de origem árabe (F. V. Peixoto da Fonseca, 1999)
• Wikipédia — Lista de palavras portuguesas de origem árabe

About Fasaha

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