Does Donald Trump know ‘Tariff’ has Arabic roots?

“To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is ‘tariff,’ and it’s my favorite word,” Donald Trump said in an October 2024 interview.¹

One wonders if the former U.S. president was aware that his beloved word is of Arabic origin. The word tariff (تَعْرِيفةٌ) as used in customs today is steeped in a linguistic history that stretches from Arabic to Persian, from Turkish to Latin, and from there to modern European languages. It all goes back to the Arabic base word تَعْرِيفٌ.

Let’s trace the origin of the English word tariff and see how we got from ع-ر-ف to the meaning of a government-imposed tax on imports or exports, often used to regulate trade, protect domestic industries, or generate revenue.

From the Arabic root ع-ر-ف to English tariff

There are various sources and etymological dictionaries that give us some clues as to how we came to tariff. As always with such research, we have to treat them with caution, since etymology is a difficult subject as we cannot go back in time.

The most important ideas and assumptions can be summarized as follows (without guaranteeing completeness or accuracy):

1. The English term tariff originates from the French word tarif, meaning fixed price, which in turn is derived from the Italian tariffa, meaning price imposed, i.e., a schedule of taxes and customs duties.
2. The older root is the Middle Latin tariffe, which entered the Latin world through contact with the Turkic peoples. The word goes back to the Ottoman Turkish word taʿrife, meaning price list, schedule of customs rates.
3. The origin of this Turkish term, in turn, is the Persian word taʿrefe (تعرفه), meaning fixed price, receipt, which in turn is derived from the Arabic word تَعْرِبفٌ, which carries multiple meanings such as making known (hence definition), notice, announcement.
4. As indicated above, the Arabic word تَعْرِبفٌ is derived from the triliteral root ع-ر-ف which means to know, to be able to recognize, to perceive, to discover.

Here is one possible breakdown of the steps by which we arrived at the English rate from the Arabic. This time, we start with Arabic.

By the 19th century, tariff in American English had narrowed to almost exclusively mean an import duty, diverging from the broader French usage, where tarif still refers to various price lists like taxi fares or electricity rates.

From the Tarifa Island to English tariff

There is also another idea about the origin of ‘tariff’ that researchers have proposed: a linguistic connection between a place called Tarifa and the English word tariff.

• According to the Australian historian David Day in his book Smugglers and Sailors: The Customs History of Australia, 1788–1901 (published 1992), the term tariff may have originated from ransoms demanded by pirates in the area of Tarifa Island.
• Other historical sources suggest that Tarifa was one of the first ports to impose fees on merchants for dock usage, contributing to the broader adoption of the term tariff in commercial contexts.

Tarifa, located in the province of Cádiz in southern Spain, is one of the most southerly points of Europe, lying just 13 km (8 miles) from the African coast. It sits at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula and has historically been a crucial crossroads between continents.

The name Tarifa originates from Tarif ibn Malik (طريف بن مالك), a commander under the renowned general Tariq ibn Ziyad (طارق بن زياد), who led the Muslim conquest of Visigothic Hispania.

In 710 AD, Tarif ibn Malik was the first Muslim to set foot on Iberian soil during a military mission, landing opposite Tangier (طنجة) at a site later named after him: Jazirat Tarif (جَزِيرة طَرِيف). This location eventually became known as Tarifa. It was the first part of Andalusian territory occupied by the Muslims.

In Arabic, Tarifa is sometimes called Jazirat Tarif (جَزِيرة طَرِيف) – Island of Tarif -, though the Spanish name Tarifa (تريفا) is also used in Arabic-speaking contexts.

Personally, I prefer the idea that ‘tariff’ comes from the Arabic word تَعْرِبفٌ, but who knows. Now let us dig deeper and check the meaning of the root ع-ر-ف.

The Arabic root ع-ر-ف

The core meaning of عَرَفَ is to know. When we compare two words which are both translated as knowledge, الْمَعْرِفةُ and الْعِلْمُ, we get closer to the deeper meaning of the root ع-ر-ف.

• In early Islamic thought, الْمَغْرِفةُ (al-Maʿrifah) was often associated with knowledge acquired through reflection or experience – something that presupposes prior ignorance. It implies familiarity with a particular subject and recognition of its distinctiveness.
• Meanwhile, الْعِلْمُ (al-ʿilm) was understood as knowledge that exists independently, often described as spontaneous or absolute, particularly in religious contexts.
• The term العلم became closely linked to divine knowledge and matters of faith, while المعرفة leaned toward human-acquired, worldly understanding.
• Accordingly, الْمَغْرِفةُ is often contrasted with الْإِنْكارُ (al-Inkār), meaning denial, and الْعِلْمُ with الْجَهْلُ (al-Jahl), meaning ignorance.
• However, while these distinctions exist, الْعِلْمُ is not exclusively reserved for religious knowledge, and الْمَغْرِفةُ is not strictly secular—context shapes their meanings.

The term تَعْرِيفٌ

The word تَعْرِيفٌ literally means making known. Today, it mostly denotes definition, determination or announcement. It is the verbal noun (مَصْدَرٌ) of the II-verb عَرَّفَ – يُعَرِّفُ which means to inform, to determine, to specify; also: to introduce.

The term تَعْرِيفٌ in logic and philosophy

The term تَعْرِيفٌ is used in logic to refer to definition. Ibn Sina (ابن سينا) was one of the earliest philosophers to apply تَعْرِيفٌ as a general term that encompassed both حَدٌّ (the Aristotelian definition, which defines the essence of a thing) and رَسْمٌ (a descriptive definition, which defines a thing by its characteristics without necessarily capturing its essence). His contributions to logic and philosophy were groundbreaking, influencing both the Islamic intellectual tradition and medieval European thought.

Ibn Sina (ابن سينا), also known in the West as Avicenna, was a Persian philosopher, physician, and scientist who lived during the Islamic Golden Age (c. 980–1037). His works, particularly The Book of Healing (كتاب الشفاء) and The Canon of Medicine (القانون في الطب), had lasting impacts on fields ranging from metaphysics and epistemology to medicine and logic.

The term تَعْرِيفٌ in grammar

In Arabic grammar, the term تَعْرِيفٌ denotes the fact or process of making a word grammatically definite. If we want to produce the opposite, making a word indefinite, we use the term تَنْكِرٌ. The state when a noun is definite is called مَعْرِفة; if it is indefinite, we call it نَكِرةٌ.

In German, there is also a word very similar to the English term tariff, which has the same Arabic basis. We will now take a closer look at this.

The German word ‘Tarif’

In German, the word Zoll is used for the English word tariff. The German word Tarif, on the other hand, is used frequently in two different senses:

• a fixed price; a fee or charge for something
• a negotiated and contractually agreed amount and scale of wages, salaries

Finally, let us take a brief look at how the Arabs translate the terms customs duties and tariff.

The Arabic terms for tariff

In Arabic, two terms are important in the context of tariff.

• Customs: جُمْرُكٌ; plural: جَمارِكُ. For example: to go through customs (مَرَّ بِالْجَمارِكِ); customs office (مَكْتَبُ جَمارِكَ).
  Note: The Arabic word جمرك (jumruk), meaning customs, originates from the Ottoman Turkish كمرك (gümrük) or گومروك (gümrük). These Turkish words trace back to the Byzantine Greek κομμέρκιον (kommérkion), which itself derives from the Latin commercium, meaning trade or commerce.
• Tariff – in the sense of charge or price list: تَعْرِيفةٌ, sometimes also spelled تَعْرِفةٌ. For example: a tariff increase (رَفْعُ تَعْرِيفةٍ)
• Toll; tax: مَكْسٌ; plural: ٌمُكُوس

Footnotes

1. Note: Donald Trump went on to say that God, religion, and love are actually the first three words in that order, followed by tariffs. Another time, on the Joe RoganPodcastt, Trump said that tariffs are “the most beautiful word in the English language, more beautiful than love, more beautiful than anything else.” Sources: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/interview-the-joe-rogan-experience and https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-10-15/in-trump-s-economic-plan-tariff-is-the-most-beautiful-word ↩︎