Spanish Words From Arabic

Here you will find the top Spanish words that come from Arabic.

Number	Arabic	Spanish	in English
1	زمن	hora	time
2	عام	año	year
3	اشخاص	personas	people
4	الطريق	camino	way
5	يوم	día	day
6	رجل	hombre	man
7	شيء	cosa	thing
8	النساء	mujer	woman
9	الحياة	vida	life
10	طفل	niño	child
11	العالمية	mundo	world
12	مدرسة	colegio	school
13	حالة	estado	state
14	أسرة	familia	family
15	طالب علم	estudiante	student
16	مجموعة	grupo	group
17	بلد	país	country
18	مشكلة	problema	problem
19	كف	mano	hand
20	جزء	parte	part
21	مكان	sitio	place
22	قضية	caso	case
23	أسبوع	semana	week
24	شركة	empresa	company
25	النظام	sistema	system
26	برنامج	programa	program
27	سؤال	pregunta	question
28	عمل	trabajo	work
29	حكومة	gobierno	government
30	رقم	número	number
31	ليل	noche	night
32	نقطة	punto	point
33	الصفحة الرئيسية	casa	home
34	ماء	agua	water
35	غرفة	habitación	room
36	أم	madre	mother
37	منطقة	zona	area
38	مال	dinero	money
39	قصة	historia	story
40	حقيقة	hecho	fact
41	شهر	mes	month
42	كثيرا	lote	lot
43	حق	derecho	right
44	دراسة	estudiar	study
45	كتاب	libro	book
46	عين	ojo	eye
47	مهنة	trabajo	job
48	كلمة	palabra	word
49	اعمال	negocio	business
50	القضية	problema	issue
51	جانب	lado	side
52	طيب القلب	tipo	kind
53	رئيس	cabeza	head
54	منزل	casa	house
55	الخدمات	Servicio	service
56	صديق	amigo	friend
57	الآب	padre	father
58	قوة	poder	power
59	ساعة	hora	hour
60	لعبه	juego	game
61	خط	línea	line
62	النهاية	fin	end
63	عضو	miembro	member
64	القانون	ley	law
65	سيارة	coche	car
66	مدينة	ciudad	city
67	تواصل اجتماعي	comunidad	community
68	اسم	nombre	name
69	رئيس	presidente	president
70	الفريق	equipo	team
71	دقيقة	minuto	minute
72	فكرة	idea	idea
73	طفل	niño	kid
74	الجسم	cuerpo	body
75	معلومات	información	information
76	عودة	espalda	back
77	الأبوين	padre	parent
78	وجه	cara	face
79	الآخرين	otros	others
80	مستوى	nivel	level
81	مكتب. مقر. مركز	oficina	office
82	باب	puerta	door
83	الصحة	salud	health
84	شخص	persona	person
85	فن	Arte	art
86	حرب	guerra	war
87	التاريخ	historia	history
88	حفل	fiesta	party
89	نتيجة	resultado	result
90	يتغيرون	cambio	change
91	صباح	Mañana	morning
92	السبب	razón	reason
93	ابحاث	investigación	research
94	فتاة	niña	girl
95	شاب	chico	guy
96	لحظة	momento	moment
97	الهواء	aire	air
98	مدرس	profesor	teacher
99	فرض	fuerza	force
100	التعليم	educación	education

Did you know that there are a lot of Spanish words from arabic? In fact, the Spanish language goes back at least 8,000 years. The language that has left its mark more than any other besides Latin is: Arabic.

During the days of the Roman Empire, when the Iberian Peninsula was under the rule of the Caesars, Iberians spoke a dialect of Latin. When the Western world fell into the so-called Dark Ages, much of its knowledge, including that of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, was preserved by the Arabs through Arabic translations.

This is how Arabic was permanently infused into the Greek and Latin languages. From there, it was passed on to the Iberian language.

The Spanish heritage

How Iberia changed it’s name to Spain

Here’s how taking on foreign words even caused the name “Iberia” to change to “Spain:”

When Carthaginian soldiers arrived on the peninsula in the fifth century BC, they discovered rabbits everywhere. There were so many that they covered even the landing where the ships pulled up to shore. The soldiers yelled, Span (rabbits)!

From then on, the Romans referred to the peninsula both as Iberia and Hispania.

Once the Roman Empire fell, Hispania took its Castilian (Spanish) form: España.

The moors

When Muslim Berbers (AKA the Moors) crossed the Mediterranean and invaded Iberia in 711 AD from Mauritania, this began a full-scale influx of Arabic into the language. It covered every aspect of life: from religion; to literature; to science and mathematics; to the arts, to cuisine and more. Arabic ran deep into the Spanish language and culture for the next 286 years, creating all kinds of Spanish words from Arabic.

The legacy of Spanish words from arabic

Surprisingly, over 8,000 Spanish words from Arabic are still in the Spanish language today.

Take, for example the following words identifying food:

• Lemon (Arabic: laymun/Spanish: limon)
• Sugar (Arabic: asukkar/Spanish: azucar)
• Saffron (Arabic: zafran/Spanish: azafrin)
• Rice (Arabic: ‘arz/Spanish: arroz)
• Oil (Arabic: zeit/Spanish: aceite)

Place names

Ironically, despite the Spaniards’ staunch loyalty to and pride in Catholicism, it was the Muslim religion that was responsible for the appearance of many Spanish words from Arabic as place names:

• qat-al-Ayyub – the fort of Ayyub
• majri – a breeze
• al qantarah – the bridge
• al-andalus – the vandals

Everyday words

• Spanish hasta – Arabic hata (even, until)
• Spanish almohada – Arabic al-mujjada (pillow)
• Spanish algebra – Arabic al-jebr(algebra)
• Spanish alkali – Alkali (something alkaline)
• Spanish alcalde (mayor)
• Spanish azul – Arabic azur (blue)

And so forth…

As you can see, many of these words have become so much a part of the Spanish language that we don’t even think about it. So, you now have a flavor of the creation of Spanish words from Arabic.