List of Arabic Loanwords in English - R

R

racquet or racket (tennis)

The French fr:Raquette, Italian it:Racchetta, and the synonymous English racquet are usually taken as derived from medieval Latin rascete which meant the bones of the wrist. The earliest records of the Latin are in two 11th-century Latin medical texts, one of which was by the Arabic-speaking Constantinus Africanus who drew from Arabic medical sources. (Crossref borage). Today's etymology dictionaries all suppose the Latin to be from Arabic and the most popular theory derives it from راحة rāha(t) = "palm of the hand". A less popular theory derives it from رسغ rusgh = "bones of the wrist".

realgar

رهج الغار rahj al-ghār, arsenic sulfide. In medieval times, realgar was used as a rodent poison, as a corrosive, and as a red paint pigment. The ancient Greeks & Romans knew the substance. Other names for it in medieval Arabic writings include "red arsenic" and "rodent poison". Ibn al-Baitar in the early 13th century wrote: "Among the people of the Maghreb it is called rahj al-ghār" (literally: "cavern powder"). The earliest records in the West are in 13th-century Spanish spelled rejalgar, and 13th-century Latin and Venetian spelled realgar. In English, Geoffrey Chaucer spelled it resalgar in the 1390s.

ream (quantity of sheets of paper)

رزمة rizma, bale, bundle. Paper itself was introduced to the West by the Arabs in and around the 12th and 13th centuries (the adoption in the West went slowly); history of paper. The Arabic word for a bundle spread to most Western languages along with paper itself, with the initial transfer from Arabic to the West in Spain. Castillian Spanish was resma. Catalan raima, first record 1287, looks the forerunner of the English word-form. First record in English is 1356.

roc (mythology)

رخّ rukhkh, mythological bird in the 1001 Nights tales.