Are خلاص and alas related?

W

walles

New Member
Italian- Italy
Hi everyone!
I lived in Dubai for a year so I know veeeery basic Arabic words such as Khalas. Now, as I am studying Shakespeare, I see that the characters use the world "alas" quite a lot with the same meaning as "khalas".
Does anyone know if there is a connection and if so,which word influenced the other?

TIA
 
    • Othello,act 4,scene 2
    Lodovico: or did the letters work upon his blood and new-create his fault?
    Iago: alas,alas! It is not honesty in me to speak what I have seen and known [...]

    I can't add an example in Arabic as I don't speak Arabic.

    But in both languages it means "enough"/"stop".
    Like,let's say, 2 kids are fighting about something and the mom say "khalas/alas" to make them stop.
     
    fenakhay said:
    alas is from Old French a las (cognate to Modern French hélas) equivalent to Italian ahimè.
    Click to expand...

    I see.
    So alas has this meaning. While khalas means enough,right?
    If that's the case then there is no connection between the 2?
     
    walles said:
    Hi everyone!
    I lived in Dubai for a year so I know veeeery basic Arabic words such as Khalas. Now, as I am studying Shakespeare, I see that the characters use the world "alas" quite a lot with the same meaning as "khalas".
    Does anyone know if there is a connection and if so,which word influenced the other?

    TIA
    Click to expand...
    I'm an Arabic and somehow both having some contexts meaning as in it's Cambridge dictionary page:

    "an expression of sadness or
    disappointment, especially when there
    is no hope that a situation will change:"

    That's an exact meaning in most of the Arabic dialects
    Examples:
    Khalas hell not help me
    He is gone khalas never comeback to...

    but I don't know how it reached there😳😄
     
    Frankly I don’t see any similarities in meaning. The English expression has no meaning other than to express sadness or concern, perhaps pity. It seems to have come ultimately from Latin to mean “weary” so I’m not even sure that the cognates in French or Italian are close to the Arabic although I speak neither so I can’t tell.

    Arabic خلاص is not used to express sadness even though it might be used in a sad context. It means enough or it’s over or that’s it or no more depending on context. It can also mean “to be saved” or “to get rid of”. In fact, a closer expression used in Arabic would be آه, it expresses sadness or pain albeit the contexts it would be used in are probably quite different.
     
    this word in kurdish means "(something) ended." we use it as verb. i do not know the case exactly for arabic but i remember nancy ajram uses it at the end of one of her song as normal voice (i.e. not song). and please be informed that i did not make any allegation regarding the etymology of the word. my personal idea is that there was no connection between "alas" and "خلاص"
     
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