Science, ideas & the arts

music

Mousikḗ was 'the art of the Muses', covering poetry and song as much as melody. Latin musica carried it across Europe, while Abbasid scholars took it straight from Greek as mūsīqā and passed it on to Persian, Ottoman Turkish and Urdu; modern Turkish, Indonesian, Swahili and Japanese took it again from French, Dutch and English.

Weakest linkCertain

The road to English

From Ancient Greek to Arabic, Persian, Urdu

From Arabic to Ottoman Turkish

From Latin to Italian

From Latin to Spanish

From Latin to Portuguese

From Old French to French, Turkish

From Old French to Middle High German, German

From Old French to Middle Dutch, Dutch, Indonesian

From Latin to Polish, Russian

From English to Swahili

From English to Japanese

450 BCEAncient Greek

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.