lime

Most words come to us from the English language's Germanic roots, as well as a lot of Latin, French, and Ancient Greek. There are, however, many English words that are actually derived from Arabic. Most of these have to do with chemistry, astronomy or mathematics — but here's a list of words derived from Arabic to do with food and drink. The words in this list mainly reach English through Portuguese and Spanish, as Iberia was under the control of Arabic people from 710–1492 CE. As the Portuguese and Spanish were in such close proximity to Arabic on a daily basis, many of the food and drink items featured here were first introduced to them, before they passed them on to the rest of Europe.

The words on this list do not denote color in and of themselves, but you can (and should) use them that way. They'll brighten your writing and make your descriptions more visually specific -- think apple green as opposed to bright green.

Brush up on this list of words for different shades of green. Here are links to our lists in the collection: Blue, Green, Red, Yellow, Orange, Pink, Purple, White, Black and Gray, Brown