this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Interesting that the majority of European languages seem to get it from the Semitic family, rather than from within their fellow Indo-European language family. Etymonline suggests, and the picture reinforces, that it mostly got there via Greek. So I suspect we have Alexander the Great, or possibly earlier interactions between Greek states and Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs, for that borrowing.
Κάμηλος (kámēlos) existed in Greek before Alexander adventures (we find it in Herodotus, Agatharchus or the Septuagint); an etymology book I have says it probably comes from Babylonian, but doesn't explain why.
Name, please. Inquiring word nerds must know more.
It's a French book but there's a good etymological dictionary of Greek in English online: https://archive.org/details/etymological-dictionary-of-greek_202306/mode/1up
I'm cool with a book being in French. I have a Spanish language etymological dictionary, too. I kind of collect etymology sources, actually - I've got another etymology book of the English language, and even one of Persian.
Which is why your link is going right into my Favorites list. ❤️
My book is an older (and cheaper 😅) version of this book: Pierre Chantraine, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque