Across the Mediterranean and Beyond: Notes on Mamlūk Wanderings in European Dictionaries

From the Middle Ages to the present day, the Arabic word mamlūk (literally, « owned») has given rise to numerous loanwords across the Mediterranean and far beyond, from Medieval Latin mamaluchus to Contemporary American English slang mamaluke. While usually maintaning a reference to mamlūk-s as slave soldiers (and especially to the Mamluks of Egypt), many of these loanwords developed some additional meanings, which at times became even more popular than the ‘historical’ ones, and which do speak volumes about processes of representation and categorisation of the ‘others’ in the concerned societies. With this in mind, the present paper explores the trajectories of the main offsprings of the word mamlūk in Medieval Latin and in European languages, as part of a research aiming to contribute to both linguistic and cultural studies.