monstrous predatory bird of Arabian mythology, 1570s, from Arabic rukhkh, from Persian rukh. It is mentioned in Marco Polo's account of Madagascar; according to OED, modern use of the word mostly is due to translations of the "Arabian Nights" tales. Hence roc's egg "something marvelous or prodigious." Compare simurgh.
"hot, dry desert wind" in the Arabian peninsula and elsewhere in that region, 1790, from Arabic samum "a sultry wind," literally "poisonous," from samma "he poisoned," from sam "poison."
"single-masted native vessel used on Arabian Sea," later widely applied to all Arab vessels, 1799, original language and meaning unknown. Klein suggests a relation to Persian dav "running."
"thoroughbred Arabian camel," late 13c., from Old French dromedaire and directly from Late Latin dromedarius "kind of camel," from Latin dromas (genitive dromados), from Greek dromas kamelos "running camel," from dromos "a race course," from dramein "to run," from PIE *drem- "to run" (source also of Sanskrit dramati "runs, goes," perhaps also Old English trem "footstep").
A variety of the one-humped Arabian camel bred and trained for use as a saddle-animal, "and comparing with the heavier and slower varieties as a race-horse does with a cart-horse; it is not a different animal zoologically speaking" [Century Dictionary]. An early variant in English was drumbledairy (1560s).
stringed musical instrument, late 13c., from Old French lut, leut (Modern French luth), from Old Provençal laut, a misdivision of Arabic al-'ud, the Arabian lute, literally "the wood" (source of Medieval Latin lutana, Spanish laud, Portuguese alaude, Italian liuto), where al is the definite article.
Dutch luit, German Laute, Danish luth are from Romanic. A player is a luter (Middle English), a lutist (1620s) or a lutanist (c. 1600, from Medieval Latin lutanista).
also sheikh, "head of an Arab family," also "head of a Muslim religious order," and later also a general title of respect, 1570s, from Arabic shaykh "chief," literally "old man," from base of shakha "to grow old." Popularized by "The Sheik," the 1919 novel in an Arabian setting by E.M. Hull, and the movie version, "The Sheikh" (1921), starring Rudolph Valentino, which gave the word its colloquial sense of "strong, romantic lover." The word gave French fits: Old French had it as seic, esceque, and later forms included scheik, cheikh.
"man-eating giant of fairy tales and popular legends," 1713, hogre (in a translation of a French version of the Arabian Nights), from French ogre, first used in Perrault's "Contes," 1697, and perhaps formed by him from a dialectal variant of Italian orco "demon, monster," from Latin Orcus "Hades," which is of unknown origin. In English, more literary than colloquial. The conjecture that it is from Byzantine Ogur "Hungarian" or some other version of that people's name (perhaps via confusion with the bloodthirsty Huns), lacks historical evidence. Related: Ogrish; ogreish; ogrishness; ogreishness.
also ensorcel, "to bewitch," 1540s, from French ensorceller, from Old French ensorceler, a dissimilation of ensorcerer from en- (see en- (1)) + verb from sorcier "sorcerer, wizard" (see sorcery). Related: Ensorcelled; ensorceled.
A rare word in English until Richard Burton took it for The Tale of the Ensorcelled Prince, a translation of a title of one of the Arabian Nights tales (1885). The word had been used in an earlier (1838) partial translation, "The Book of The Thousand Nights and One Night," by Henry Torrens, whose book Burton knew and admired. It turns up, once, in George Puttenham's "Arte of English Poesie" (1589), which was reprinted in the early 19th century. Perhaps Torrens saw it there.
