Words Arabic Took In
denarius
الدِّينار
dīnār
Dīnār is Latin denarius, 'containing ten', for it was worth ten Roman copper asses. Al-Azhari counted it among the foreign words that 'became Arabic once the Arabs spoke them'. The English wrote the penny as d, the first letter of denarius.
- Came
- From Latin
- Original meaning
- 'containing ten': a coin worth ten asses
- Meaning in Arabic
- a gold coin
«وهو نظيرُ ما دخل في كلام العرب من كلام العجم، مثل الدّيباج والدّينار والسُّندس والإستبرق وما أشبهها، ولمّا تكلّمت بها العرب صارت عربيّة.»
It then went on from Arabic into European languages.
The route is disputed between two editors: F. Abdurrahim (al-Mu'arrab, p. 290) thinks it most likely came through Middle Persian; Abdelali Wadghiri (al-'Arabiyyat al-Mughtaribat 1/465) thinks the Arabs may have taken it from late Byzantine Greek. The Latin source is agreed.
It also went back to Europe: French dinar is attested in 1697, and North Macedonia's currency is the denar, as Wadghiri notes. Today it is the currency of Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.
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Sources
- الأزهريّ، تهذيب اللغة ١٤/١٩٢
- ابن منظور، لسان العرب ٤/٩٥ (تنر): الدّيباج والدّينار والسندس والإستبرق
- الجواليقيّ، المعرّب، تحقيق ف. عبد الرحيم، ص٢٩٠
- عبد العلي الودغيري، العربيّات المغتربات ١/٤٦٥
- Wiktionary: denarius
- Wikipedia: £sd (d for denarius)
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