Monday, August 08, 2005

"Arab" according to Western Dictionaries


Originally posted by Eman, and then reposted by Roba and Sinan., I felt the need to spread the word of the current ignorance of the state of ignorance in the world. The following are definitions of the word “Arab” according to three different dictionaries.

The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:
Ar•ab Listen: [ rb ] 4. Offensive Slang A waif.

The Free Dictionary by Farlex:
4. Offensive Slang A waif.

Bartelby Thesaurus:
looby, lout, underling; gamin, street Arab, mudlark.

YourThesaurus:
gadabout, gadling; vagrant, scatterling, landloper, waifs and estrays, wastrel, foundling; loafer; tramp, tramper; vagabond

Websters:
vagrant, hobo, night walker, sleep walker; noctambulist, runabout, straphanger, swagman, swagsman; trecker, trekker, zingano, zingaro.

I wanted to repost this to shows those of non-Arab decent, how respectable references such as Websters, view us. The definitions show a sign of weakness and hatred. I am not sure how these definitions came to be, or how they are authorized, but I assume adding a definition to a dictionary is a tedious process. And for such words to filter through to many different sources, only shows ignorance and disrespect on many levels of society.

posted by x @ 8:24 PM   13 comments

13 Comments:

  • At 8/09/2005 1:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Dear, you're not an Arab. You don't have to worry about it. Plus the usage of the word "Arab" in the past centuries in the west was deragatory.
    In france, they used to use the word "Arab" as in an expression like, "he works like an Arab", meaning the person works in a very bad and dirty manner.
    Basically, they were referring to the people of the desert.

    In English, we also use the word "barbarian act" the barbars were PEOPLE too, and now it's an enormous deragatory word.

    You're no Barbar or Arab. Enjoy your real nationality and heritage. Stop following the uneducated mainstream.

    :)

     

  • At 8/09/2005 5:56 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    hi omar ..this post makes me feel so bad ..why they dont respect our culture as much as we do with them???.....im sure they feel they are guilty but they try 2 show the oppist:(

     

  • At 8/09/2005 11:13 AM, Blogger مترجم سوري said…

    actually this reminded me of my proffessor's lectures Dr.Boujerami..when he used to tell us all about the history of those european who we look at them now with wide opened mouthes...a simple example is that they used to look at women as witches in their dark ages and it was our poets who taught them to flirt women..!
    i remember also that he used to say that till 1886 ,i guess, they used to belive that Arabs have only 3 fingers on their hands!

    i studied in the British Council, the teachers used to show their surprise to what they saw in syria...they used to say that u have unique soul and mind ... i remember that one of the teachers was really surprised for the fact that there would be only 2 students in each of his classes who smoke while the rest are non- smokers and don't even think about smoking!

    i wouldn't forget how they would weep when their contracts expired and they'd have to leave syria for good.

     

  • At 8/09/2005 5:38 PM, Blogger x said…

    Anonymous regarding the first comment. I am an Arab.
    I don't see your point. KKK members call blacks names, Mexicans and Asians are also given names on the streets, do we have to inlclude them in the dictionary as well?? Or is defining an Arab as a scum politically correct nowadays?
    If, for example, a Jew was given any sort of bad name, bells and whistles would go, and we would label all who worked on the defenition an anti-semitist. The role of dictionaries is not to promote hatred, but rather to tell the truth.

    As for the second comment, which I assume came from the same person. I think the only person who needs to catch up on history is you! Since we're speaking of dictionary definitions, go look up Algebra.
    Do you find it ironic that every western country uses Arabic numerals?

    At the same time barbaris tribes, living in today's UK, were painting their bodies with blue paint so that they can repel disease; Arabs were practicing medicine, and exporting their knowledge to the west.

    I would also advise you to look up "Al Kindi" the author of 290 books on medicine, astronomy, mathematics, linguistics and even music.

    So, please before making rash remarks, and making untrue claims, check what you're typing, and make sure that what your sharing is comming from knowledge and not from ignorance.

     

  • At 8/09/2005 7:17 PM, Blogger Sinan said…

    Omar, I wanted to shut this anomymous mouth but I waited to see your reaction and boy oh boy you did much better than I would ever do. And by the way Anonymous Syrians and Irakis are known as Arabs even before the Islamic rule that's a thing, and the other thing Arabs scientist took knowledge from persian and Greeks translatate it to Arabic and then developed it and I challenge you to bring one single Arab historian who said as you claimed that these sciences are total Arab product.

     

  • At 8/09/2005 7:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Don't we Syrians say "Arab Jarab"?
    So we use the word "arab" as a slurt too.

    I'm not justfiying what the dictionaries are saying in any way.

    But we should not have a doubl-standard in this. We are the most poeple who call others names. The jews and other religions are always being ridiculed in the Media. Westerners are always seen as immoral dumb people with a "few good scientisits and some money"... that's all being said in the Media in a very open way...

    Can any western say that openly in the US or Canada about other people? People would SUE the hell out of media there.

    By the way, have you checked these dictionaries by yourslef? They explain what an "Arab" means and then they say "offensive slurt". Search for "gook" "chunk"...etc you'll find the same thing. You live in the west, have you had any expereince with somebody calling you an "arab" as a slurt?

    Dear, I read history ALOT and I Love the Syrian history so much. I don't care much about the 22 so-called Arabic countries which have the blondes, blacks, and yellow and white skinned "Arabs".

    I care about my home country Syria.

    If you read history, I think you should know that all these good "arab" scientists appeared during the Ummayyad and Abasside Dynasties.
    Not many of them lived in "Arabia" where the Arabs came from.

    Also, all the foundation of the "arab" scienses were based on Syrian and Iraqi sciences and philosophy that preceded the invasion. More than half of these famous "arab" scientists were either Syrian or Iraqis, and at that time the Syrians and Iraqi had their own heritage and they weren't called "Arabs'( if you didn't know that).

    The Syrians translated all the works of the great greek philosophers and scientists into Arabic after the invasion of Syria by the Arabs. That was the foundation of the great sciences.

    During that time the people of Arabia (where the real Arabs lived) didn't have much of a good life as the Syrians and Iraqi.

    After the Ummayad and Abassite dynasties failed. The Arabs of Arabia and the whole middle east wasn't in a very good shape and it was the starting point of the collapse of the great civilization. I think when the "west" used the word "arab" as a slurt, it was all after the golden age. And when they say "Arab" they refer to the people of Arabia (Syria is not included in Arabia).

    I went to one of the dictionary links:
    Arab means:

    "1 - A member of a Semitic people inhabiting Arabia, whose language and Islamic religion spread widely throughout the Middle East and northern Africa from the seventh century."

    The people who inhabite Arabia are the real hours by blood. Which you don't belong to. Just take a look in the mirror if you look like them then you might have one of them as an ancestor.

    2 "A member of an Arabic-speaking people."

    You fall under that category. You and all the other "arabs" who live in north Africa and the Levantine Area.
    except very few with pure Arabian blood (which I don't think exsist in this century in the Levantine or North African Area).

    I really appreciate the fact that you're an educated person who likes history. But please try to focus more on your Country's history instead of wasting time on the 22 countries.

    Syria has way too much important history that we dismiss and forget about....

    I don't think you agree with me that much or at all... but we could agree to disagree. Please consider seeing history from a Syrian point of view (you are Syrian) be proud of it...

    You don't have to be proud of the people of the desert and the other 22 countries... to be a proud Syrian...

    good night

     

  • At 8/10/2005 6:07 AM, Blogger مترجم سوري said…

    that was a lecture in i don't know whose history...
    shouldn't u say ur name , insteade of leaving comments undercovered...

     

  • At 8/10/2005 7:18 AM, Blogger مترجم سوري said…

    secondly we don't inslut any other religions here...not even jews..what we call name are the israeli..and i think most people know the difference between an israeli and a jew..
    thirdly..the media here is contorlled by politics ..and if we look at the westerns as ppl with no morrals that coz they have pictured themselves in this way in a very clear way in their media ...
    so it's their problem
    i have nothing against the western ,after all they r human beings, but when they look at me as if i were some kind of uneducated person who needs to be civilized be4 i infect them .. then ofcourse i have a problem..and belive me there are a good deal of westerns who think that way ,
    u can ask the westerns who u work with about this...ask them about their ideas about the 'arabs'be4 they came here and after

    fourthly,using the word 3rab in ur comment is not correct if ur talking from a historical point of view...those who moved'not invaded' from aljazeereh al3arbieh to syria where called 3rban not 3rab

    good morning to u:)

     

  • At 8/10/2005 9:21 AM, Blogger مترجم سوري said…

    and this is finally... i actually don't know what to say for talking like this about doctor boujerami..if u weren't stupid enough u wouldn't talk like this about him

     

  • At 8/11/2005 10:26 PM, Blogger x said…

    Thanks for your long explanation anonymous. I now understand your viewpoint, but that is not to say I agree with it. I have a bit of time so I will reply to this remark "Also, all the foundation of the "arab" scienses were based on Syrian and Iraqi sciences and philosophy that preceded the invasion. More than half of these famous "arab" scientists were either Syrian or Iraqis, and at that time the Syrians and Iraqi had their own heritage and they weren't called "Arabs'( if you didn't know that)."

    First of all, the foundations have to come from somewhere, that's how science works. What's important is that we built on that foundation.

    Second of all, I will have to disagree about the notion of seperating Arabs from Syrians from Iraqi's etc. The scientists who lived in Syria and Iraq, practiced their field under the Islamic Empire, which sprang from Arabia. Had the Islamic empire not been there, those scientists would have probably never had the opportunity to become scientists. The propserity of the Islamic empire at the time provided the money, and means of carrying out science.

    Now imagine a Syrian family who has been in the US for 2 generations. One member of the family comes up with a great discovery. Is it an American discovery or a Syrian one? If you ask me, it's an American one. The US provided the education and the facilities to make the discovery a reality. I think the same goes for those Syrian and Iraqi scientist, who practiced under the Arab made empire.

    Furthermore, I don't think there's any nation that lacks intellegence. Your presistence that Arabs (as you define them) had nothing to do with scientfic development, tells me that you think Arabs lack intellegence.

    One last point, I was a bit sad to learn that you're a Syrian. I really thought that I would never have to argue such matters with a fellow countryman. We have been speaking Arabic for 100's of years, how can you not consider your self one? Canada is comprised of hundreds of nationalities, and they are all proud to be Canadian. On the other hand, our heritage goes back to a time where Canada wasn't even on the map, and we're still having trouble identifying our nationality..

    Lastly, I think this was a great discussion, mainly for the respectful manner that we carried. And like you said if anything, we can at least just agree to disagree..

     

  • At 8/12/2005 3:21 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Dear Omar,
    thanks for taking some of your time to reply to me. I found your reply to be very reasonable. It has many valid points, but it doesn't really go against what I already said. I think it validates your point of view and mine at the same time.

    I agree that the foundation of science has to come from somewhere. That makes perfect sense. All civilizations borrowed some scientific things and build up their own developments and renditions.

    I also agree that the golden age of the Arabic Empire was very good for scientists and for inventions (in the invaded countries). That doesn't mean the scientists weren't there in the first place. They were Syrian and from Syrian families before the Arabs came.

    Arabs at that time didn't have the same level of the complexity of the Syrian civilization.(This is history). The Desert provides a harsher life, where people's priority is to survive and find water. While in Syria things were easier for people to start thinking about other things. Just look at our old civilizations (Hittis, Akkadis, Assyrians, Phoenicians...etc). I don't think civilizations like that existed in Arabia. Also, if you read in old Arabic history (The Arabian one) you could find them how they differentiate themselves SO MUCH from Syrians and others.

    You said that all the scientific discoveries in Syria were labeled "Arabic" because it's natural for the science to follow the name of the ruler. Then you gave the example of the Syrian family in America.

    Here's my answer. Syria was ruled by the Persian, Assyrians, Egyptians, Greek, Roman, then finally the Arabs.
    Does That means there was NO SYRIA in history?. And the Syrian people didn't exist?. During the Greek rule, Syrians were all greek?. During the Persian rule, Syrians were all Persian?. I don't think that's true at all, because you can't massacre a whole nation and vanish it. I think this also applies to the Arabic rule.

    Syrians weren't called anything close to "Arabs" before the 7th century. Yes indeed, many Arabs moved from Arabia when they came along with the invaders' army. At first they didn't intermarried with the Syrians (because the early rulers didn't want Muslims to be non-Arabs). They want the religion to be pure (according to a book about Syria and Lebanon). But afterwards that rule stopped, and people were able to intermarried. Syrians also were allowed to convert to Islam afterwards. They weren't allowed during the first years of the Arabic rule.

    Greek, Roman and Persian armies invaded Syria, and Syrians intermarried with them, but they didn't change their nationality and heritage into Greek or Roman, even though they were indeed influenced by them.


    You said we've been speaking arabic for hundreds of years and that makes us Arabs. I Totally disagree with this point. Well, the french and the french speaking countries of Africa speak french. Do they belong to the same heritage or race? I don't think so.
    It's the same situation. Those Arabic-speaking people are Blacks, Whites, Blondes, and yellow-skinned. What's the connection? Beside the similar or "one" langauge that they all speak.


    I don't know why we have to label our old Syrian sciences and heritage as an "Arabic" heritage and give Them the appreciation that they brought the science into our country. I also don't know why when someone screws up in Egypt or Saudi Arabia, we have to take the blame because we are "Arabs". We are not Egyptians or Saudis. Let them enjoy their inventions and failures, and let us do the same thing too.
    Our history is full of things to be proud of and to be ashamed of... but in my opinion the most thing we should be ashamed of is us. the people who are dismissing their heritage and history COMPLETELY.

    I really would love to meet with you in person to discuss this matter. I'm sure we will find a middle ground or maybe we'll both agree on something. I think my whole problem is with the wording and labeling of everything.

    I am Syrian and only Syrian and proud of my Syrian history and heritage.
    You are my fellow Syrian that I am proud of(whether you attach (arabic, canadian, french, African, or any other) labels to yourself or not.

    Good night

    P.S.: if you're still interested in having this conversation, feel free to take this discussion somewhere else.

     

  • At 8/18/2005 6:19 AM, Blogger Unknown said…

    i agree with Mr, the last anonymous who posted! Syrian, people are not at the basis, arab, but assyrians, arabs are [i remember] from saudia and those countries! so don't worry. But arab, now, means all of us (saudia as well as syria as well as marocco) and In France people speak very meanly about arab people. They are even politics partis against immigration and speaks always about arabs who take the french people's job. when there are some problemes in districs, for example people fighting of anything else, arab are always pointed by the finger. but we are used to listen on radio: "a woman has been beaten in the Strret by a 19 years old arab", and people says "always the same agressors". We are not seen by a good manner, but we can say that there are no problems with syrian people at all!

     

  • At 11/06/2015 10:04 PM, Blogger oakleyses said…

    tory burch outlet, ray ban sunglasses, michael kors outlet, kate spade outlet, burberry outlet online, michael kors outlet, oakley sunglasses, prada outlet, jordan shoes, chanel handbags, louis vuitton, louis vuitton, louboutin, replica watches, ugg boots, tiffany and co, michael kors outlet, nike free, michael kors, christian louboutin outlet, louis vuitton outlet, ray ban sunglasses, louboutin outlet, ugg boots, louis vuitton, michael kors outlet, uggs on sale, burberry, nike air max, louboutin shoes, tiffany jewelry, longchamp, longchamp outlet, polo ralph lauren outlet, ray ban sunglasses, nike outlet, replica watches, oakley sunglasses, cheap oakley sunglasses, prada handbags, longchamp outlet

     

Post a Comment

<< Home