With the help of Google Translate we have the English word lighthouse translated into 56 different languages.

The name Pharos, from the most famous lighthouse in history, the Lighthouse of Alexandria, built on the island of Pharos in Hellenistic Egypt, is still used as the noun for lighthouse in some languages, for example: Albanian, Catalan, and Romanian (far), French (phare), Italian, Galician, and Spanish (faro), Armenian (“Փարօս/Paros”), Portuguese (farol), Bulgarian (фар), and Greek (φάρος). The term pharology (study of lighthouses) also derives from the island’s name.

And coming from the Latin pharus we have far, faro, farol, phare and pharos.

Notice the similarity in some of the languages – Afrikaans and Dutch; Albanian and Romanian; Galician, Italian and Spanish; Norwegian and Swedish; Russian, Ukranian and Belarusian.

The etymology of words is fascinating.

If you see any mistakes, or wish to add some more, please contact me.

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Afrikaans – Vuurtoring

Albanian – far

Arabic – منارة Continue reading ‘Lighthouse’ in Your Language →