The proper name Arab or Arabian (and cognates in other languages) has been used to translate several different but similar-sounding words in ancient and classical texts which do not necessarily have the same meaning or origin. The etymology of the term is closely linked to that of the place name Arabia.
Semitic etymology
The root of the word has many meanings in Semitic languages including desert, nomad, merchant, and comprehensible with all of these having varying degrees of relevance to the emergence of the name. It is also possible that some forms were metathetical from root "moving around", and hence, it is alleged, "nomadic".
The plurality of meanings results partly from the assimilation of the proto-Semitic ghayin with in some languages. In Hebrew the word thus has the same triconsonantal root as the root meaning "west" ( ) "setting sun" or "evening" ( , ). The direct Arabic cognate of this is ("west", etc.) rather than ; however, in Ugaritic and Sayhadic, languages which normally preserve proto-Semitic ghayin, this root is found with ʿayin adding to the confusion. The first recorded use of the root is in the Hebrew word ereb, Genesis 1:5, and its meaning there is "evening."
In Arabic
The oldest surviving indication of an Arab identity is an inscription made in early Arabic using the Nabatean Aramaic alphabet in 328 CE, which refers to Imru' al-Qays ibn 'Amr as "King of all the Arabs".
In the Qur'an, the word does not appear, only the nisba adjective, : The Qur'an is referring to itself as "Arabic" and "clear". The two qualities are connected, for example in Quran 43:2-3, "By the clear Book: We have made it an Arabic recitation in order that you may understand", and the Qur'an came to be regarded as the prime example of , the language of the Arabs. The term is from the same root, referring to a particularly clear and correct mode of speech. Bedouin elders still use this term with the same meaning; those whose speech they comprehend (i.e. Arabic-speakers) they call Arab, and those whose speech is of unknown meaning to them, they call (or ). In the Persian Gulf region, the term Ajam is often used to refer to the Persians.
The plural noun refers to the Bedouin tribes of the desert who rejected Islam, for example in Quran 9:97,
"the Bedouin are the worst in disbelief and hypocrisy". Based on this, in early Islamic terminology, referred to sedentary Arabs, living in cities such as Mecca and Medina, and referred to the Arab Bedouins, carrying a negative connotation as shown in the prior Qur'anic verse. Following the Islamic conquest of the 8th century, however, the language of the nomadic Arabs came to be regarded as preserving the highest purity by the grammarians following Abi Ishaq, and the term "language of the Arabs" came to denote the uncontaminated language of the Bedouins.
Cf. the modern toponyms Algarve (from Gharb al-Andalus) and Arava
In Assyrian
The term mâtu arbâi describing Gindibu is found in Assyrian texts and is translated as of Arab land. Variations of the ethnonym are also found including: , , and . The presence of Proto-Arabic names amongst those qualified by the terms arguably justifies the translation "Arab" although it is not certain if they all in fact represent the same group. They may plausibly be borrowings from Aramaic or Canaanite of words derived from either the proto-Semitic root or .
It is in the case of the Assyrian forms that a possible derivation from ("west") is most plausible, referring to people or land lying west of Assyria in a similar vein to the later Greek use of the term Saracen meaning in Arabic "Easterners", for people living in the east.
In Hebrew
In Hebrew the words ʿarav and ʿaravah literally mean "desert" or "steppe". In the Hebrew Bible the latter feminine form is used exclusively for the Arabah, a region associated with the Nabateans, who spoke Arabic. The former masculine form is used in Isaiah 21:13 and Ezekiel 27:21 for the region of the settlement of Kedar in the Syrian Desert. 2 Chronicles 9:14 contrasts "kings of ʿarav" with "governors of the country" when listing those who brought tribute to King Solomon. The word is typically translated Arabia and is the name for Arabia in Modern Hebrew. The New Revised Standard Version of the Bible uses instead the literal translation "desert plain" for the verse in Isaiah. The adjectival noun ʿaravi formed from ʿarav is used in Isaiah 13:20 and Jeremiah 3:2 for a desert dweller. It is typically translated Arabian or Arab and is the modern Hebrew word for Arab. The New Revised Standard Version uses the translation "nomad" for the verse in Jeremiah.