List of Arabic Loanwords in English - U-Z

U-Z

varanoid (in lizard taxonomy), Varanus (lizard genus)

ورل waral and locally (particularly in Algeria) ورن waran, varanoid lizard especially Varanus griseus. In Europe in the 16th to 18th centuries it was usually spelled with an L, e.g. "varal" (1677, French), "oûaral" (1725, French), "worral" (1828 English dictionary), but certain influential writers in the early 19th century adopted the N spelling. The V in place of W reflects Latinization. Historically in Latin and Romance languages there was no letter W.

zenith

سمت الرأس samt al-rā's, meaning zenith, also vertex, and literally "top of the path". Origin in texts of astronomy in medieval Islam. Borrowed into Latin in the 12th century.

zero

صفر sifr, zero. Medieval Arabic sifr -> Latin zephirum = "zero" (used by Leonardo of Pisa in 1202) -> Old Italian zefiro (used by Piero Borgi in the 1480s) -> contracted to zero in Old Italian before 1485 (though the first record in Italian is 1491) -> French zéro 1485 -> English zero 1604; rare in English before 1800. Crossref cipher.