Some words, you can’t see their Arab origin directly, others not. What is it with sugar, a Sofa and a mattress.
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From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Alcohol
“Alco(h)ol vini” – the “Finest of wines”, the physician Paracelsus in 1527, describing the distillation product of the wine. Originally, however, the term alcohol is a popular cosmetic, namely, Arabic al-kull, the very common eye powder from powdered minerals, in alchemy, a “fine powder.” In the 17th century. Century was created the “Alcohol vini” in pharmacies and distributed.
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From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Coffee
From African coffee beans from the Yemeni Sufi monks were probably the first drink they called qahwa. The stimulating Drink was on Mecca, Cairo, and Damascus in the 16th century. Century to Constantinople, where he was called qahve. Through diplomatic channels the drink in 1669, came to Paris, and quickly became the fashionable drink, and was shortly afterwards made his way to Germany.
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From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Sugar
Coffee with sugar? This is again a word from the Arabic language, sukkar, which the Arabs borrowed, however, from the Sanskrit sarkara. The Europeans learned about sugar, as a medicine and candy, the Crusades and Mediterranean trade to know and love. In Italy his name is zucchero, azucar in Spanish, sucre in France and sugar in English.
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From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Mattress
The Arabic word matrah means “place where something is thrown”- pillow and cushion. In Germany, the cushions have been referred to in the song of the Nibelungs around 1200 as a matraz. Often there were silk-covered, embroidered, luxury objects were transmitted by the French knightly culture. Mattress it is still in English, the French say matelas and the Italian materasso.
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From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Sofa
Here, too, Europeans acquisitions, Islamic home decor. In the German-occupied French master at the end of “Soffa” in 1694, for the first time, originally in the Arab region, a stone bench, a Podium, and later in the Turkish increased, with cushion padded seat, “sofa”. At the beginning of the 18th century. Century, the word described in Europe, Bank-like, with pillows, fitted wall projections.
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From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Magazine
Makzan was in Arabic, the place where something is kept has been stored. The word came through trading to Europe, to the medieval markets was thus referred to the warehouse. Whether Stern, Vogue, or mirrors: borrowed From the English, the German “magazine” is nothing more than a collection point for texts, information and photos.
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From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Giraffe
The German word for long-necked animal of Africa goes back over that Italian to the Arabic zarafa, where it, in turn, from the Ethiopian borrowed could be. The European ancient world knew the animal: Julius Caesar was 46, a Giraffe in his triumphal procession in Rome to carry. At that time they held the exotic Giraffe, however, for a hybrid creature, and she called for a long time “the camel Panther”.
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From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Alcohol
“Alco(h)ol vini” – the “Finest of wines”, the physician Paracelsus in 1527, describing the distillation product of the wine. Originally, however, the term alcohol is a popular cosmetic, namely, Arabic al-kull, the very common eye powder from powdered minerals, in alchemy, a “fine powder.” In the 17th century. Century was created the “Alcohol vini” in pharmacies and distributed.
-
From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Coffee
From African coffee beans from the Yemeni Sufi monks were probably the first drink they called qahwa. The stimulating Drink was on Mecca, Cairo, and Damascus in the 16th century. Century to Constantinople, where he was called qahve. Through diplomatic channels the drink in 1669, came to Paris, and quickly became the fashionable drink, and was shortly afterwards made his way to Germany.
-
From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Sugar
Coffee with sugar? This is again a word from the Arabic language, sukkar, which the Arabs borrowed, however, from the Sanskrit sarkara. The Europeans learned about sugar, as a medicine and candy, the Crusades and Mediterranean trade to know and love. In Italy his name is zucchero, azucar in Spanish, sucre in France and sugar in English.
-
From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Mattress
The Arabic word matrah means “place where something is thrown”- pillow and cushion. In Germany, the cushions have been referred to in the song of the Nibelungs around 1200 as a matraz. Often there were silk-covered, embroidered, luxury objects were transmitted by the French knightly culture. Mattress it is still in English, the French say matelas and the Italian materasso.
-
From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Sofa
Here, too, Europeans acquisitions, Islamic home decor. In the German-occupied French master at the end of “Soffa” in 1694, for the first time, originally in the Arab region, a stone bench, a Podium, and later in the Turkish increased, with cushion padded seat, “sofa”. At the beginning of the 18th century. Century, the word described in Europe, Bank-like, with pillows, fitted wall projections.
-
From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Magazine
Makzan was in Arabic, the place where something is kept has been stored. The word came through trading to Europe, to the medieval markets was thus referred to the warehouse. Whether Stern, Vogue, or mirrors: borrowed From the English, the German “magazine” is nothing more than a collection point for texts, information and photos.
-
From alcohol to sugar – everyday German terms derived from Arabic
Giraffe
The German word for long-necked animal of Africa goes back over that Italian to the Arabic zarafa, where it, in turn, from the Ethiopian borrowed could be. The European ancient world knew the animal: Julius Caesar was 46, a Giraffe in his triumphal procession in Rome to carry. At that time they held the exotic Giraffe, however, for a hybrid creature, and she called for a long time “the camel Panther”.
Some words, you can’t see their Arab origin directly, others not. Andreas Unger, author, and classical scholar, explains how objects of the finer way of life, science and technology and, of course, the corresponding terms in the middle ages, found their way from the Arab culture to Europe and indirectly in the German language.
DW: How Arabic words came into German?
Andreas Unger: The is mainly done in the middle ages. The Arabic-Islamic culture of the middle ages and the European.
About the merchants and the Arabs in Spain and Sicily, Europeans have taken over many things from science, technology, and especially luxury items – and thus the Arabic name, you then have Europeanised.
So the Europeans have taken over, for example, the mattress and the floor?
It was a little more complicated, because there were also changes of Meaning. Matrah means in Arabic ‘the place where something is thrown’. The Arab customs, pillows, rugs or Blankets were thrown on the floor or on seats. The Arab luxury items have interested the Europeans, and the medium was high-ceiling English “matratz” originally a Luxury. Gradually developed in the course of time, the bed therefrom, and has become part of today’s mattress.
Words such as a Sofa and co. came directly from the Arabic into German?
The Germans have not bordered to Arabic-speaking countries, and have driven on the Mediterranean sea practical no trade. Most of it has come over the Italians, but also about Spain with the Arab population, on trade and the merchants were in Palestine, and stuff bought in Europe.
Represented certain groups of words?
One of the two major groups of science. The Arabs had taken over the Greek science in Europe was around the year 1000, almost unknown. Then, the corresponding Arabic books were translated into Latin, and so the corresponding notions from astronomy, mathematics, and pharmacy came into the European languages.
The other group, the luxury items are: the Sofa was originally a kind of honorary seat, sugar was very important, as well as everything that was made of it: Marzipan, and Candy, for example, fragrances – Jasmine, orange blossom, tropical fruits such as oranges and limes, and musical instruments such as Lute, guitar and Tambourine.
There is a word whose Arabic origin surprised you the most?
Petrol!
Sometimes the significance of developments are strange. Gasoline is derived from benzoic acid, this is extracted from the benzoin resin, which was originally how incense, a perfume, imported from Java.
For a long time it was hardly known that the European culture has taken on a certain proportion of de Arab-Islamic culture of the world, and some of the words have an Arabic origin. In the context of the conflict of the European with the Arabic-Islamic culture, it is interesting to know that the European culture has certain roots in the Arabic-Islamic culture. That’s why I wrote the book!
Andreas Unger is a linguist and lives in Berlin. “From Algebra to sugar. Arabic words in the German” appeared in an expanded second edition in 2013, in the Reclam publishing house, Leipzig.