The article analyzes the method of integrating Arabic loanwords into the English lexical system through the lens of the scholarly works of Walter William Skeat, Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Cambridge. Based on W. W. Skeat’s «An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language», the author identified over 150 lexical units of Arabic origin used to express a wide range of diverse concepts. Based on the routes of entry into the recipient language, these loanwords were classified into two groups: direct and indirect. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the vast majority of the loanwords under study entered English indirectly—that is, through other languages. Spanish and French play the most significant role among intermediary languages, a fact attributable to a combination of historical reasons and extralinguistic factors characteristic of the era in question. The analysis indicates that the transmission of Arabic loanwords into the English lexicon followed diverse pathways: while some items entered via a single intermediary language, others passed through a sequential chain involving two, three, or even four languages.
lexical system of a language, Arabic borrowings, direct and indirect borrowings, the English language, intermediary languages, W. W. Skeat,etymological dictionary, statistical analysis, semantic variation, Spanish and French languages
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