Word journey
The word mosque
place of prostration; a Muslim house of prayer
The journey
| Form | Language | Date | Sense |
|---|---|---|---|
| masjid | Arabic · Islam | 632 CE | place of prostration, mosque (from sajada, "to prostrate") |
| mezquita | Old Spanish · Islam | 1140 CE | mosque (in the Cantar de mio Cid, about 1140; Medieval Latin meschita already late 11th century) |
| moschea | Italian | 1400 CE | mosque (moscheta from the 14th century, after meschita in Dante; the form moschea by the 15th century, as in Luigi Pulci; dates approximate) |
| mosquée | Middle French | 1423 CE | mosque (mousquaie 1423, from Italian moschea; musquée 1457; the spelling mosquée from 1550; an earlier musquette, 1351, came from Italian moscheta) |
| mosque | English · Islam | 1605 CE | Muslim house of worship (-ee taken as a suffix and dropped) |
What is certain and what is not
Spanish mezquita from Arabic masjid is phonologically difficult; Al-Jallad (2017) proposes Aramaic masgeda ("the place of worship") as the source instead. The Romance dates follow the French TLFi (Spanish 1140, Italian 14th to 15th century, French 1351 to 1550). English dates range from about 1400 (moseak) to the 1600s.