Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Arabic ·1500s
Arsenal
from dār al-ṣināʿa
- Meaning
- House of craft or manufacture — originally a naval dockyard.
- Source word
- dār al-ṣināʿa
- Route into English
- Arabic → Italian *arsenale* (the Venetian shipyard) → French → English. The Venetian Arsenal could build a galley in a day at its peak; the modern sense of any weapons store comes from that military context.
- Arrived
- 1500s
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.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.