_December 18th marks Arabic Language Day, the day when the General Assembly approved Arabic as one of the official languages of the U.N. in 1973. To celebrate its 43rd anniversary, we’ve collected some lesser known facts about the fifth most widely spoken language in the world in 2016.

1. The word “Arab” means “nomad” — a fitting word because the Arabic language originated from nomadic tribes in the desert regions of the Arabian Peninsula.

2. The English words, “admiral”,“coffee”, and “giraffe,“ are of Arabic origin, as well as “alcohol”, “algebra”, “algorithm” and “alkaline”. The article “al” means “the” in Arabic.

3. In mathematics, the algebraic letter ‘x’ which represents an unknown number actually originated from the Arabic word “shay” or “thing” in English. It eventually became translated to ‘xay’ in Spain so its final abbreviation became ‘x’.

4. Arabic has influenced several other languages around the world:

5. It is the official language in over 20 countries.

Arabic Speaking Countries in Africa

Arabic Speaking Countries in Asia (Middle East)

6. Arabic is the language of the Noble Qur’an and the Islamic law. Knowing the language is an obligation for Muslims or practitioners of Islam, a rapidly growing religion with a global population of 1.6 billion.

7. Words are written from right to left. Numbers are written from left to right. Some Arabic letters also change form depending on where they are placed in a word (beginning, middle, end, or standalone).

8.In the Arabic language, there are at least 11 words for “love”. Each one conveys a different stage in the complex process of falling in love. “Hubb”, the most common word for “love” in Arabic comes from the same root as the word “seed”, which has the potential to grow into something beautiful. (Beautiful, isn’t it?)

Are you an Arabic native speaker or learner? What do you think makes this language interesting? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Sources: wikipedia.com, myeasyarabic.com, nationsonline.org, britishcouncil.org