2924: Giraffe: Persian→Arabic→Persian Dec 23, 2024

An older English word for the giraffe was a camelopard, literally “camel + [leo]pard” in reference to its vaguely camel-like shape but also vague leopard-like print. Most European languages now use a word like ‘giraffe’ which they all got from the Arabic زرافة (za’arafa). This isn’t originally an Arabic word though, as it came from the Classical Persian زُرنَاپَا (zurnāpā), a compound of زُرنَا (zurnā) meaning ‘flute’ and پَا (pā) for ‘leg’. This was then reborrowed into modern Farsi (i.e. Persian) as زرافه (zarafeh).

This is unrelated to the Ge'ez ዘራት (zärat), Amharic ጅራተ (ǧəratä) or other of the similar sounding words found around Ethiopia, which come from a Semitic root meaning ‘thin tail’.