Almanac, meatball, customs, pillow, village, lettuce, handcuff, cotton, tailor…
Enormous was the contribution of the Arabs to the Portuguese and Spanish vocabulary during their stay of seven centuries in the Iberian Peninsula. The curious detail is that this al fixed at the beginning of words was, in fact, the definite article of the Arabic language. “Alchemy”, for example, means “chemistry”. In the source language, the al accompanies any and all nouns, whether masculine or feminine, singular or plural. In addition, it is always attached to the word to which it refers – it is not possible to insert any other word between it and the noun, as we do in our language: your book, the only book, etc. Another striking fact is that this article also appears in Portuguese words that do not begin with al. This is because its second letter, the “l”, can be changed so that its sound harmonizes with the consonant that follows it. Thats how ar-ruzz turned into «rice» and az-zayt«oil».
All of this reinforces, for those listening, the idea that the article is part of the word. And we ended up assimilating that and putting it together with our articles. That’s why no one says «the Godo» or «the zeitona». Likewise, therefore the holy book of Islam can be called «Qur’an» or «Koran».
ALGEBRA
Comes from al-jabr, or “the art of gathering broken or dislocated bones.” His transition from medicine to mathematics took place with the book Al-jabr w’al muqabalah, published in the year 825 by the mathematician Al Khwarizmi (whose name gave us the word “digit”). Besides, the original meaning of al-jabr he also entered the Spanish language, which called the barber-surgeon specialized in mending broken or dislocated bones an “algebrista”, as can be read in Don Quixoteby Cervantes.
AT
Comes from ar-rub, the fourth part, because it corresponded to that fraction of a yard, another ancient measure. The equivalence in kilograms and liters varies greatly, depending on the region and the materials measured. In Spanish-speaking countries it is worth something like 11.5 kg, while in Brazil and Portugal it is 14.79 kg – but in the beef trade the value is rounded up to 15 kg. As the @ symbol was used to represent it, this became, in Iberian countries, the name of the sign used worldwide in electronic addresses. (The original English means at“in”, a much more appropriate term for addresses!)
ALMANAC
There are several hypotheses for its origin. The sober one says it comes from al-manajthe circle of the months – manaj seems to be the Arabization of the Latin word manacus, which designated the circle of the sundial that marks the succession of months. It matches the main purpose of almanacs, which has always been to publish the calendar with the seasons, lunation, eclipses, etc. The other hypothesis, much more imaginative, also involves the Arabs: the word would come from al-manah – place where you stop on a journey, the place where the camel rests, referring to the 12 stops that the Earth would make on its journey around the Sun, in the houses of the zodiac, and remembering, at the same time, the place where the drivers of caravans parked to rest and exchange news, curious stories and picturesque facts, much like modern almanacs
ALCOHOL
Comes from al-kohl, name of the fine, dark powder of antimony that women still use to make up their eyes. Julius Caesar must have seen it beautifying Cleopatra’s eyes, as its origin is Egyptian. The word entered our language to designate any powder that, like kohl, was obtained by vaporizing a solid. From the 17th century, it naturally came to encompass the product of the distillation
BAD LUCK
Comes from az-zar, “flower” – actually meaning dice or game of dice, because these cubes had the figure of a flower where today we have the six. Due to the obvious link between data and the idea of probability, the term came to indicate the unforeseen element in events. Although it encompassed both good and bad luck (as in the French hasard, chance), in modern Portuguese it mainly indicates contrary luck. In Spain, however, until today it is called luck the white flower of the orange tree.