we have been doing word from arabic into english on an off now for a while.. sugar and its distant cousin crocodile, a slew of al (alcohol, algebra, albacore (as in tuna), safari, (coming into english from swahili, which has rich borrowings from arabic)

some came through spain, and others i suspect from the crusades... the 13th and 14th centuries were rich ones for the the muslums, and many words for ideas, and things came into english from them..

Anu did a theme of yiddish, but hebrew has also enriched language.. "the land of... arret(sp?) in hebrew, got read backwards (as might happen, since hebrew is read from right to left,) and gave latin and later english terra.. (earth)

in the colonial days, several sects started an effort to revive hebrew.. since they wanted a sacred language for scripture, and rejected latin. The Bowne family (currently most well known as Bowne printers, a major print house for financial papers (prospectus, annual reports, etc) has live in NY since the late 1640's. in there house in queens, (bowne house, on bown street) the pewter cups and plates are engraved in hebrew, with word of thanks. (thanking the lord for his bounty and grace.)

with hebrew being learned, i can't help but think other words have entered english, too.


my other obsession