Arizonians complain about use of the word "Haboob"

[yg17]

You can't even make this **** up....

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/22/us...ml?_r=3&ref=us

PHOENIX — The massive dust storms that swept through central Arizona this month have stirred up not just clouds of sand but a debate over what to call them.

The blinding waves of brown particles, the most recent of which hit Phoenix on Monday, are caused by thunderstorms that emit gusts of wind, roiling the desert landscape. Use of the term "haboob," which is what such storms have long been called in the Middle East, has rubbed some Arizona residents the wrong way.

"I am insulted that local TV news crews are now calling this kind of storm a haboob," Don Yonts, a resident of Gilbert, Ariz., wrote to The Arizona Republic after a particularly fierce, mile-high dust storm swept through the state on July 5. "How do they think our soldiers feel coming back to Arizona and hearing some Middle Eastern term?"

Diane Robinson of Wickenburg, Ariz., agreed, saying the state’s dust storms are unique and ought to be labeled as such.

"Excuse me, Mr. Weatherman!" she said in a letter to the editor. "Who gave you the right to use the word 'haboob' in describing our recent dust storm? While you may think there are similarities, don’t forget that in these parts our dust is mixed with the whoop of the Indian’s dance, the progression of the cattle herd and warning of the rattlesnake as it lifts its head to strike."

Some other evil America hating words of Arabic origin that only terrorists in Al Qaeda use: admiral, alcohol, algebra, apricot, candy, coffee, gauze, guitar, jar, lemon, magazine, mattress, orange, soda, sofa, tuna and zero

[jonbravo77]

I live in Phoenix and I love the word. it's fun to say....

[Rodimus Prime]

lets be fair labeling all Arizonians as dumbass here is not fair. It is a very select few that are idiots.

[yg17]

Originally Posted by Rodimus Prime

lets be fair labeling all Arizonians as dumbass here is not fair. It is a very select few that are idiots.

I agree it's not fair, that's why I'm not labeling all Arizonians as dumbass racists.

[flopticalcube]

Haboob is boobah backwards.

[citizenzen]

Maybe they should check out this article from Wikipedia, of which I'll highlight just a few [source] ...

List of Arabic loanwords in English

Arabic loanwords in English are words acquired directly from Arabic or else indirectly by passing from Arabic into other languages (usually one or more of the Romance languages) and then into English. Some of these Arabic loanwords are not of ancient Arabic origin, but are loanwords within Arabic itself, coming into Arabic from Persian, Greek or other languages.

admiral
أمير amīr, commander. Amīr al-bihār = "commander of the seas" was a title in use in Arabic Sicily, and was continued by the Normans in Sicily in a Latinized form, and then adopted successively by Genoese and French. Modern French is "amiral". An English form under King Edward III (14th century) was "Amyrel of the Se". Insertion of the 'd' was doubtless influenced by allusion to common Latin "admire".

algebra
الجبر al-jabr, completing, or restoring broken parts. The mathematical sense comes from the title of the book "al-kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wa al-muqābala", "The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completing and Balancing" by the 9th century mathematician al-Khwarizmi. When translated to Latin in the later 12th century, the book's Latin title contained the newly minted word "Algebrae" representing al-jabr.

assassin
حشاشين ḥashāshīn, an Arabic nickname for the Nizari branch of Ismailism in the Levant during the Crusades era. This sect carried out assassinations against chiefs of other sects including Christians at the time. Conversion of the sect's nickname to the meaning of "assassin" happened in Italian after the Crusades era was over.

candy
قندي qandī, sugared. Arabic is from Persian qand = "cane [sugar]", and possibly from Sanskritic before that, since cane sugar developed in India. "Candi" entered all the Western languages in the later medieval centuries.

coffee, café
قهوة qahwa, coffee. Qahwa (itself of uncertain origin) begot Turkish kahveh which begot Italian caffè. The latter form entered most Western languages in and around the early 17th century. The early 17th century West also has numerous records in which the word-form was directly from the Arabic, e.g. Cahoa in 1610, Cahue in 1615, Cowha in 1619. Turkish phonology does not have a 'W'. The change from 'W' to 'V' in going from Arabic qahwa to Turkish kahveh can be seen in many other loanwords going from Arabic into Turkish.[34] [42] Cafe mocha, a type of coffee, is named after the city of Mocha, Yemen, which was an early coffee exporter.

guitar
قيتارة qītāra, a kind of guitar. "The name reached English several times, including 14th century giterne from Old French. The modern word is directly from Spanish guitarra, from Arabic qitar." (Etymonline.com). The Arabic is descended from ancient Greek kithara (which might be connected to ancient Persian Tar meaning string, and string instrument.

jar (food or drink container)
جرّة jarra, earthen vase. First records in English are in 1418 and 1421 as a container for olive oil.[51] Spanish jarra has 13th century records.[4] Arabic jarra has records going back centuries earlier.

magazine
مخازن makhāzin (from khazan, to store), storehouses. Used in Latin with that meaning in 1228.[4] Still used that way in French and Italian. Sometimes used that way in English in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, but more commonly in English a magazine was an arsenal, a gunpower store, and later a receptacle for storing bullets. A magazine in the publishing sense of the word started out in English in the 17th century meaning a store of information about military or navigation subjects.

orange
نارنج nāranj, orange. Arabic descends from Sanskritic nāraṅga = orange. The orange tree came from India.

racquet or racket (tennis)
The French fr:raquette, Italian it:racchetta, and the synonymous English racquet are usually accepted as derived from medieval Latin rascete which meant the bones of the wrist (carpus). The earliest records of the Latin are in two 11th century Latin medical texts, one of which was by the Arabic-speaking Constantinus Africanus, whose work drew from Arabic medical sources. (Crossref borage). Today's etymology dictionaries all suppose the Latin to be from Arabic and the most popular theory derives it from راحة rāha(t) = "palm of the hand". A less popular theory derives it from رسغ rusgh = "bones of the wrist".

sugar
سكّر sukkar, sugar. Ultimately from Sanskritic sharkara = sugar. Among the earliest records in English are these entries in the account books of an abbey in Durham: year 1302 "Zuker Marok", 1309 "succre marrokes", 1310 "Couker de Marrok", 1316 "Zucar de Cypr[us]".

tuna
التون al-tūn, tunafish. Ancient Greek and classical Latin thunnus [= tunafish] -> medieval Arabic al-tūn -> medieval Spanish atún -> American Spanish tuna -> American English tuna. Note: Modern Italian tonno, French thon, and English tunny are descended from the classical Latin without an Arabic intermediary. [133] The Albacore species of tunafish got its name from Spanish & Portuguese albacora, which might be from Arabic, which in Arabic might have designated tuna species but probably not albacore.[95] [134] Bonito is another tuna species. Some say this name may be a Spanish-ization of Arabic بينيث bainīth; others say it may be simply from Spanish bonito = "pretty good".

zero
صفر sifr, zero. Arabic ṣifr -> Latin zephirum (used by Fibonacci in 1202) -> Old Italian zefiro -> contracted to zero in Old Italian before 1485 -> French zéro 1485[4] -> English zero 1604; not common in English before 1800.[33] Crossref Cipher.

[Gelfin]

Oh. I expected something more like a ha'penny. This is my disappointed face:

[dscuber9000]

You know, I might just make Google News' results for the query "Arizona" my homepage.

[(marc)]

Originally Posted by citizenzen

...

Hey! What will the soldiers coming back to MacRumors think when they read this thread?

[citizenzen]

Originally Posted by (marc)

Hey! What will the soldiers coming back to MacRumors think when they read this thread?

That they should have fragged their admirals?

[remmy]

Originally Posted by citizenzen

candy
قندي qandī, sugared. Arabic is from Persian qand = "cane [sugar]", and possibly from Sanskritic before that, since cane sugar developed in India. "Candi" entered all the Western languages in the later medieval centuries.

ALways thought was a very american word, not often used in England except for shops and such.

[Zombie Acorn]

Originally Posted by yg17

You can't even make this **** up....

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/22/us...ml?_r=3&ref=us



Some other evil America hating words of Arabic origin that only terrorists in Al Qaeda use: admiral, alcohol, algebra, apricot, candy, coffee, gauze, guitar, jar, lemon, magazine, mattress, orange, soda, sofa, tuna and zero

Is tuna really Arabic? It's used in Spanish and Portuguese.

[iJohnHenry]

Originally Posted by Zombie Acorn

Is tuna really Arabic? It's used in Spanish and Portuguese.

Probably after the fact. Which came first? Damned if I know. I'm stuppit.

[rdowns]

Originally Posted by Rodimus Prime

lets be fair labeling all Arizonians as dumbass here is not fair. It is a very select few that are idiots.

Where did he say that?

[EricNau]

Guess we probably shouldn't use the word Tsunami either. Sounds so... foreign.

[Gelfin]

Originally Posted by EricNau

Guess we probably shouldn't use the world Tsunami either. Sounds so... foreign.

What will the World War II veterans think?

[EricNau]

Originally Posted by Gelfin

What will the World War II veterans think?

I hope they're rightfully offended.

And don't get me started with the use of Nuée ardente in America. Such a disrespect to those who fought in the Franco-American War.

If only Americans would use American words. Like hamburger, pie, and errr, spaghetti, and... garage.

[likemyorbs]

Originally Posted by remmy

ALways thought was a very american word, not often used in England except for shops and such.

Really?? So what's the english word for candy?

[torbjoern]

Originally Posted by likemyorbs

Really?? So what's the english word for candy?

sweets

[Gelfin]

Originally Posted by EricNau

Such a disrespect to those who fought in the Franco-American War.

To say nothing of Spaghetti-Os.

Originally Posted by EricNau

Like (...) garage.

I call it a car hole.

[macquariumguy]

Originally Posted by Gelfin

I call it a car hole.

Man cave.

[Thomas Veil]

"How do they think our soldiers feel coming back to Arizona and hearing some Middle Eastern term?"

Um...in familiar linguistic territory?

"Excuse me, Mr. Weatherman!" she said in a letter to the editor. "Who gave you the right to use the word 'haboob' in describing our recent dust storm? While you may think there are similarities, don’t forget that in these parts our dust is mixed with the whoop of the Indian’s dance, the progression of the cattle herd and warning of the rattlesnake as it lifts its head to strike."

Wow, is this woman channeling Palin, or what?

[skunk]

I'm complaining about the use of the word "Arizonians".

[Rt&Dzine]

Originally Posted by EricNau

I hope they're rightfully offended.

And don't get me started with the use of Nuée ardente in America. Such a disrespect to those who fought in the Franco-American War.

If only Americans would use American words. Like hamburger, pie, and errr, spaghetti, and... garage.

Don't forget Freedom Fries.

[localoid]

If Roman numerals were good enough for Jesus, they should be plenty good enough for the USA!

Just say no to Arabic numerals!