English Words from Arabic origins

A plant of the genus Senna synonym Cassia: Sennas is included in the group of leguminous herbs, shrubs, and trees that are indigenous to warm climates.

The leaves and pods of the senna are used in medicine as a purgative and laxative.

1. A small gold coin of Turkey and Italy: In Sandra's history book, she saw photos of the old sequins that were used as money, but were now in a museum.
2. A small disk of shining plastic or metal with a hole in the center: Grace's mother sewed on many colorful sequins on the dress Grace was going to wear to the dance.

1. The head or chief of an Arabic village, of a small tribe or family: Jane read about a sheik as being the patriarch of a family and used as a polite title.

A sheik can also be a man who is known and respected for his religious learning or piety.

1. Fruit juice combined with a dairy product; a sorbet with dairy ingredients: At the restaurant, Lynn ordered an orange sherbet for dessert, and it tasted fantastic!
2. A fizzy powder made of sugar, bicarbonate of soda, and some flavoring: A sherbet can be eaten by itself or combined with water to create a drink.

A hot, dry, dusty wind especially of Arabia, Syria and adjacent countries: The extreme heat of the scorched and arid deserts and sandy plains cause the simoom to occur.

A hot, oppressive, and dusty wind blowing south to southeast on the Mediterranean: The sirocco begins in the Sahara and neighboring North African areas.

1. A hot humid south or southeast wind of southern Italy, Sicily, and the Mediterranean islands: The sirocco winds originate in the Sahara Desert as dry dusty winds but become moist as they pass over the Mediterranean.

A sirocco wind is a hot or warm southerly wind, especially one moving toward a low barometric pressure center.

The air comes from the Sahara (as a desert wind) and although it is dry and dusty, the term sirocco wind is not used in North Africa, where it is called "chom", hot, or "arifi", thirsty.

In crossing the Mediterranean the sirocco wind picks up a great deal of moisture because of its high temperature, and reaches Malta, Sicily, and southern Italy as a very enervating, hot, humid wind.

As it travels northward, it causes fog and rain. There are a number of local variants of the spelling, such as "xaroco" (Portuguese), "jaloque" or "xaloque" (Spanish), "xaloc" or "xaloch" (Catalonian).

2. Etymology: "hot wind blowing from the Libyan deserts" from the 1610's, from Italian sirocco, from common Arabic shoruq, "the east wind", from Arabic sharqi, "eastern, east wind", from sharq, "east", from sharaqa, "to rise" (in reference to the sun).

1. A soft mineral consisting of hydrated magnesium silicate which comes from igneous and metamorphic rocks and is used as talcum powder.
2. A fine-grained white, greenish, or gray mineral that has a soft soapy feel and which is used in talcum and face powder, as a paper coating, and as a filler for paint and plastics.
3. Etymology: from Middle French talc and perhaps from Spanish talco and Medieval Latin talcum. "talc" (early 14th century), both from Arabic talq, from Persian talk, "talc".