I was watching TV and the programme was set in Málaga. I knew that Málaga was in Southern Spain, but I was not sure exactly where; so I opened a map, which showed the city a bit more to the East than I suspected but, more importantly, the map also show the town of Tarifa. I didn’t know that Tarifa existed, but I was surprised by a town with such a topical name (*).
If you know a bit about Spanish and Spanish history, you know that Tarifa is 1- the word for Tariff, and 2- that Spain was occupied by the Arabs between 711-1492 CE in what it was called Al-Andalus. This explains the presence of words like albahaca (basil), naranja (orange), berenjena (eggplant), almohada (pillow), a long etcetera, and tarifa in Spanish.
Now you know that Tariff—the most prominent word in today’s dumbest timeline—comes from Arabic, moving to Latin, Spanish, French and English. It is very likely this doesn’t help me at all to cope with the geopolitical implications of a rogue nation bullying its close trade partners, but I find solace in medioeval etymological details. That and that the favourite word of the leader of the dumbest timeline comes from Arabic.
(*) Named after Tarif ibn Malik, an Arab commander who led the conquest of Southern Spain.
