Saracen

Meaning

1. A member of a nomadic people from the Sinai near the Roman province of Arabia in the early centuries CE, who were specifically distinct from Arabs.
2. (dated) A Muslim, especially one involved in the Crusades.
3. (dated) A pirate in the Mediterranean.

Translations

Sarrasin

Σαρακηνός

Sarrasins

sarraí

sarraceno

Sarracenos

Sarrazin

saraceno

Sarazene

muçulmano

saraceno

شرقيون

Sarraceno

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈsæɹəˌsən/

Etymology

From Late Latin Saracenus, from Ancient Greek Σαρακηνός (Sarakēnós) - *Saraka[?] + -ινος. The source of the Greek has long been debated.
* In the 17th-19th centuries, the most widely accepted theory derived it from Arabic شَرْقِيِّين (šarqiyyin, “easterners”), as the Sarakenoi lived to the east of most Semitic peoples of the time.
* Some authors in the 15th-17th centuries derived it from Arabic سَارِقُون (plunderers) (sariqun) (as mentioned in Wikipedia Saracen).
* In the 4th century CE, some authors (e.g. Eusebius) connected it (likely by folk etymology) to the biblical Sarah, claiming that the progeny of Hagar had chosen that name to imitate the nobler roots of Israelites. This might be the source of the pejorative use of the term, and its wide currency.
* Two theories based on place-names point at Saraka in Arabia, or Sarakēnē in Arabia Petrea. The latter, apparently in Sinai, may be related to the Bedouin tribe Sawārke/Sawārika. According to this theory, this was the first Arabic group with whom the Greek writers from Alexandria would have sustained contacts, and it served as a type that was later generalized to all Arabic groups.