English Words from Arabic
admiral
أَمِيرُ الـ…
amīr al-…
Europeans took amīr al- from phrases like amīr al-baḥr, 'commander of the sea', and dropped the rest – so the Arabic article survives at the end. The d crept in from Latin admirari, 'to admire'.
- Meaning in Arabic
- commander of the …
- Arabic today says
- أَمِيرُ البَحْر، والأَمِيرال
The path between languagesamīr al- → admiralis → admiral
It left Arabic and came back to it in its European form.
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