Oct 16, 2026, 7:37 AM

How did an Arabic word for "season" become the name of India's rains?

Arabic mawsim (موسم) meant a fixed trading season when Indian Ocean winds turned. Portuguese sailors picked it up in the 16th century as monção, Dutch merchants as monssoen, English as monsoon in the 17th.

Today it survives in 12 languages: PT monção, NL moesson, FR mousson, DE Monsun, ES monzón, IT monsone, PL monsun, RU муссон, JP モンスーン, KO 몬순.

Even Hindi मानसून came back from English.

Multilinguo did you know card hook. MAWSIM slash MONSOON. How did an Arabic word for season become the name of India's rains?

Multilinguo card. Arabic موسم (mawsim) means season. In Arabic, mawsim meant a fixed season, the time of year the winds turned and ships could sail. Arab traders had read the Indian Ocean's rhythm for centuries.

Multilinguo loanword journey. From Indian Ocean winds to a global word. Arab sailors mawsim (the season) became Portuguese monção in the 16th century, then Early-Modern Dutch monssoen (now moesson) in the 17th century, then English monsoon in the 17th century. Carried along Indian Ocean trade routes through Portuguese and Dutch merchant networks.

Multilinguo card. The same word today across 12 languages: Portuguese monção, Dutch moesson, English monsoon, French mousson, German Monsun, Spanish monzón, Italian monsone, Polish monsun, Russian муссон, Japanese モンスーン, Korean 몬순, Hindi मानसून. Even Hindi came from English, the word for India's own rains arrived there secondhand, having started in Arabic.