Origin of Bedouin

[Lonnie]

My nephew, who is Stationed in Oman, says that in the Arab language, there in no such word as Bedouin, its purely a western concoction, so, if this is right, does anybody know the history of the word?.
Thanks.

[Clanad]

An Arab of any of the nomadic tribes of the Arabian, Syrian, Nubian, or Sahara deserts.

[Middle English Bedoin, from Old French beduin, from Arabic badāwīyīn, pl. of badawī, nomadic, from badw, desert nomads, Bedouins.]

Additionally, Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawī (بدوي‎), a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic pastoralist groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and Negev to of the Arabian desert.
So says Answers.Com...

[shaneystar2]

According to my Chambers Dictionary Lonnie it's derived from the Arabic Badawin..dwellers of the desert and Wiki says ...
Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawī ( بدوي‎), a generic name for a desert-dweller.

[shaneystar2]

Whoops ....you weren't there when I posted Clanad !

[Lonnie]

Many thanks to both of you, I can come back at him now,

[Lonnie]

Hi Shaney, the stars are meant for for your first answer, but you were both a bit quck on the draw.

[Peter Pedant]

yeah
telll him we think the singular is bedu and it is an unbroken plural - beduin.

[Peter Pedant]

erm
he may be referring to bedu having plural meaning

The triliteral is b-d-u,

the root means to become clear (hem). Form I and form V are use to mean live in a desert.

badu - desert, nomads, bedouins (sic)
badawi - bedouin
and it doesnt say that it has a plural

so.he could be right -I have heard this before

All this comes from:
Arabic English dictionary -the Hans Wehr dictionary edited by J M Cowan page 47

[Peter Pedant]

There is to my mind a clear parallel to the 18C name for Japan, Xipangu, I think Horace Walpole uses it.
This appears to come from the Mandarin ji-ben-guo, the only problem is that ji-ben (Mandarin for Japan) never takes guo, as just about every other country name does .

Still no-one says xipangu now and I suppose we will go back to Bedu

Just a thought

[heathfield]

Remember 'Lawrence of Arabia'? When Peter O'Toole and his guide are at the well, and his guide refuses a drink of water? When asked why, he replies, 'I am Bedu'.

[Peter Pedant]

Noel Coward said of Peter O'Toole's performance
any more eye shadow and we will have to call it FLorence of Arabia.

The only thing I recall about the film is that Drydune, the Political Agent outranks the highest ranking officer in the room and they have to do what he 'suggests'