English Food and Drink Words Derived from Arabic
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.