Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Arabic ·1590s
Caravan
from kārwān
- Meaning
- A company of travellers, usually traders crossing a desert.
- Source word
- kārwān
- Route into English
- Persian *kārwān* → Arabic → Medieval Latin *caravana* → Middle French *caravane* → English. The camper-van sense dates only to the 1880s.
- Arrived
- 1590s
From Arabic
Science, trade, and the Mediterranean transit of Andalusian scholarship gave English its Arabic stratum — especially in maths, chemistry, and commerce. Many entered through Latin or Italian.
English borrows.
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