الوسم: words

Etymology of the English word ‘mosque’
Question: There is a book written by a Muslim revert, Yahiya Emerick entitled "The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Islam." The author discusses within it many things, including the etymology of the word “mosque”. He wrote that this word is derived from the Spanish word for "mosquito". He claimed that the word was first used during the Christian invasion of Muslim Spain in the 15th century when the forces of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella boasted they would swat out Muslim prayer houses like so many mosquitoes. Is this true?

Answer:

This etymology is incorrect.

The Spanish word for "mosquito" is mosquito and literally means "little fly". This is a case where the English borrowed the word directly from the Spanish.
The word for "fly" in Spanish is mosca, which is derived from the Latin musca. The diminutive suffix "-ito" is attached to it to form the word mosquito or "little fly".

The Spanish term for "mosque" is mezquita, derived from the old Spanish mesquita. This word was most certainly derived from the Arabic word masjid, which many Arabs then and now pronounce as masgid.

In Spain during the era of Muslim rule – and this was before the time of King Ferdinand – Spanish speakers were using the word mosquito for the insect and the word mesquita for the Muslim place of worship. The two words are not related to one another in any way.

The word "mosque" was introduced into the English in the late 14th or early 15th century from the French. It comes from the French word mosque, from the old French word mousquaie. The French, in turn, derived the word from the Italian word moschea from moscheta. The Italians got it either directly from the Arabic word masjid which means sagada "he worshiped" or from the old Spanish mesquita.

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Where this claim is concerned, the word, Mecca, does not – for instance – mean Whisky House! There are no such meaning/translation in any authentic Arabic, English or foreign dictionaries.

The common usage of the word Mecca – or mecca – in English (derived from the position of Mecca among Muslims) implies ‘centre’ or ‘important meeting point’ or a place to which people of a special group flock, as in "Wimbledon is the Mecca of Tennis" and Hawaai is "the tourist mecca". Such derived usages in English are common within the Western culture. For example, the Wisden Cricket Monthly, Wisden Book of Cricket Law and Wisden Book of Test Cricket are often called "The Cricket Bible" and Gibbon’s is called the "Bible of stamp collectors" are common similes used. Less used but seen in major writings are phrases like "The holy grail of drug addicts …"

The word Mecca now refers to more than just the geographical (i.e. not only the Holy City in Saudi Arabia) , and is used to describe any center of activity sought or converged upon by a group of people with a common interest. Las Vegas, for example, is sometimes described as ‘the Mecca of gambling,’ and ‘Mecca Bingo’ a division of The Rank Group Plc., which Muslims find these out-of-context uses very offensive. There is no doubt in many minds that the insensitivity displayed in the naming of the fairly old chain known as Mecca Dancing Clubs (a very popular series of dance halls that may also house drinking areas in the UK) was not entirely an act of naive usage of .

Mecca is also used in the names of two towns in the USA, a soft drink and two acronyms:

a.. Mecca, California, a town in Riverside County, California, USA.
b.. Mecca, Indiana, a town in Parke County, Indiana, USA.
c.. Mecca-Cola a cola-flavoured carbonated beverage[1]
d.. MECCA is also the acronym for Model Evaluation Consortium for Climate Assessment and Missile Environment Computer Control Analysis that I know of … and there are bound to be others.
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[1] Mecca-Cola was launched in France, in November 2022, by entrepreneur Tawfik Mathlouthi, as a means of aiding Palestinians by tapping into demand for alternative products in European countries. He had been inspired by a similar Iranian product, Zam Zam Cola, which was already successful in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and in fact only decided to launch his own brand when he was unable to agree on terms for a distribution contract with Zam Zam. Mecca-Cola in turn inspired the creation of Qibla Cola in the United Kingdom.
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If Mecca means "whisky house," why was there no public condemnation from the Saudi Arabian government when Anglophones first started using the word "Mecca" – for example when the British explorer Sir Richard Burton in 1853 disguised himself as an Afghan Muslim to visit and write his "Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Mecca?" (Whisky house? How utterly absurd!)