t the year 1900 in consequence of the South African war. One of
them, _slim_, 'cute, seems to have been definitely adopted. It is
cognate with Ger. _schlimm_, bad, and Eng. _slim_, slender, and the
latter word has for centuries been used in the Eastern counties in the
very sense in which it has now been re-introduced.

_Apricot_ is a much travelled word. It comes to us from Fr. _abricot_,
while the Shakespearean _apricock_--

"Feed him with _apricocks_ and dewberries."
(_Midsummer Night's Dream_, iii. 1.)

represents the Spanish or Portuguese form. Ger. _Aprikose_ comes, _via_
Dutch, from the French plural. The word was adopted into the Romance
languages from Arab. _al-barquq_, where _al_ is the definite article
(_cf._ examples on p. 115), while _barquq_ comes, through medieval
Greek, from Vulgar Lat. _praecoquum_, for _praecox_, early-ripe. Thus the
word first crossed the Adriatic, passed on to Asia Minor or the North
coast of Africa, and then travelling along the Mediterranean re-entered
Southern Europe.

[Page Heading: ARABIC TRADE WORDS]

Many other Arabic trade words have a similar history. _Carat_ comes to
us, through French, from Italian _carato_, "a waight or degree called a
_caract_" (Florio). The Italian word is from Arabic, but the Arabic form
is a corruption of Gk. {keration}, fruit of the locust tree, lit. little
horn, also used of a small weight. The verb to _garble_, now used only
of confusing or falsifying,[20] meant originally to sort or sift,
especially spices--

"_Garbler_ of spices is an officer of great antiquity in the city of
London, who may enter into any shop, warehouse, etc., to view and
search drugs, spices, etc., and to _garble_ the same and make them
clean."
(Cowel's _Interpreter_.)

It represents Span. _garbellar_, from _garbello_, a sieve. This comes
from Arab. _ghirb[=a]l_, a sieve, borrowed from Lat. _cribellum_,
diminutive of _cribrum_. _Quintal_, an old word for hundred-weight,
looks as if it had something to do with five. Fr. and Span. _quintal_
are from Arab. _qintar_, hundred-weight, which is Lat. _centenarium_
(whence directly Ger. _Zentner_, hundred-weight). The French word passed
into Dutch, and gave, with a diminutive ending, _kindekijn_, now
replaced by _kinnetje_, a firkin.[21] We have adopted it as _kilderkin_,
but have doubled its capacity. With these examples of words