English
kafir
Kafir comes from Arabic كَافِر ‘denier, unbeliever’, and goes back to كَفَرَ ‘to disbelieve’.
- Arabicc. 500–presentكَفَرَkafara‘to disbelieve’
- Arabic, derivedc. 500–presentكَافِرkāfir‘denier, unbeliever’
- Englishearliest quotation 1914kafir
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history not traced here.
Lineage
- Arabicc. 500–presentكَفَرَkafara‘to disbelieve’
- Arabic, derivedc. 500–presentكَافِرkāfir‘denier, unbeliever’
- Englishearliest quotation 1914kafir
Earliest quotation: 1914, Omar Orlando Churchill, Forage and Silage Crops for Oklahoma: “Kafir makes better forage than the duras.”
Linked words
through Arabic كَفَرَ ‘to disbelieve’
Today it means
noun A disbeliever, a denier: someone who rejects or disbelieves in Allah or the tenets of Islam; or more broadly any non-Muslim.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Arabic كَفَرَ / kafir