Suq, Souq, Sook, Souk, Suk

Yet another wonderful Arab word that likes its Q’s sans U. And, what’s more, there are five useful variants of this, with even more listed on Wikipedia. So let us delve into the world of suqs!

The suq is an open air market found in Northern Africa and the Arabian peninsula, and it can be used to refer to the physical market (as in, “Let’s go to the suq”) or as an economic market (as in, “The suq for yak butter is really flourishing these days).

I prefer Trader Joe's

If you’re wondering what the difference is between a suq and a bazaar, so am I. As best I can tell, a bazaar is either indoors or at least covered, whereas a suq is held in the open.

Thus we could use it in the following sentence.

“It rained today at the suq, so I went to the bazaar instead and bought baklava.”

Qat, Khat, Gat

A favorite of any serious Scrabble nerd — qat! We all play it regularly, but do you know what this linguistic godsend means?

I'd rather some coffee, thanks.

The qat (khat or gat) is a type of evergreen shrubbery (Catha edulis) which grows up to 10 feet tall. It occurs throughout the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula. Its true claim to fame is that the leaves contain an alkaloid that acts as a mild narcotic when chewed. This has been practiced culturally in the region for millenia, back at least as far as the Pharoahs. It is estimated that ten million people use qat regularly; in Yemen 70%-80% of men chew its leaves.. In fact in Yemen the practice is so ubiquitous that up to 40% of the water supply is spent irrigating their precious qat plants.

The effect of qat chewing doesn’t sound all that different from a strong cup of coffee, and is regarded as causing relatively little harm and with a fairly minimal risk of dependence. Having said that, it is of course illegal in the United States for some reason. Several other countries have varying restrictions on it as well.

The spelling of the name seems to vary by locality, with qat being Yemeni, gat being Hebrew, gaad, gaat or jaat being Somali… and khat is in there too somewhere. There seem to be other spellings as well, but I’m not that interested in them and neither should you. As you might expect, you can stick an -s on it. Pronounce it as you would “cot” and not like “cat.”

Now lets use it in a sentence…

“I know three things about Yemen: they have terrorists… who chew on qat leaves… and who probably wouldn’t like me visiting their country.”