'Arab' appears in 9th-century BCE Assyrian records, probably meaning 'nomads' or 'desert-dwellers.'
A Central Semitic language originating in the Arabian Peninsula, now spoken across the Middle East and North Africa; the liturgical language of Islam and one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
From Latin 'Arabicus,' from Latin 'Arabs' (genitive 'Arabis'), from Greek 'Áraps' (Ἄραψ), from Arabic 'ʿarab' (عرب). The native Arabic term 'ʿarab' is ancient, appearing in Old South Arabian inscriptions and in Assyrian records as 'Aribi' or 'Arabu' (9th century BCE). The meaning is debated: the most widely cited proposal connects it to a Semitic root meaning 'nomad,' 'desert-dweller,' or 'west' (from a Mesopotamian perspective, Arabia lay to the west). The word initially designated the Bedouin nomads of the Arabian Peninsula
Arabic has contributed more words to English than most English speakers realize. 'Algebra' (al-jabr, 'reunion of broken parts'), 'algorithm' (from al-Khwārizmī, a mathematician's name), 'alcohol' (al-kuḥl, 'the kohl powder'), 'zero' (from Arabic ṣifr, 'empty'), 'cotton,' 'magazine,' 'admiral,' 'sofa,' 'tariff,' 'caliber,' and 'zenith' are all Arabic in origin — a linguistic footprint of the medieval Islamic golden age.