Arabic language was one of the most important vehicles which carried the Arabic culture of the East to the Europe. English was one of the European languages that received an inflow of words from early contact with Spain, Sicily and the Arab East. From the Arab lands it was a continuing process, the flowing in of new words. If, today, we leaf through the English dictionaries, we will find that words of Arabic origin are found, here and there, under every letter of the alphabet. It may surprise many that a study made by some scholars found that Arabic is the seventh on the list of languages that has contributed to the enrichment of the English vocabulary.

Some examples of these common words with their Arabic origin will give an insight into this contribution.