patronymity

Updated: May 17, 2025

Certain of our own words own patronymity from the Arabic languages words such as algebra, alcohol, zenith, nadir, etc. These show clearly that the language did influence early intellectual European culture in no small degree. To go on with the letter: But there is a religious formula which recurs many times, every word of which is easy, and yet the whole of it is to me unintelligible.

Giberne Sieveking - Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman