quilate
carat — a unit of weight for gemstones; a measure of the purity of goldunidad de peso de las piedras preciosas; medida de la pureza del oro
Comes from Arabic
قِيرَاط
qīrāṭ
“carob seed used as a weight; a small unit of weight”«semilla de algarroba usada como pesa; pequeña unidad de peso»
In Andalusi Arabic: قِرَاط qirāṭ
Arabic today says
قِيرَاط
qīrāṭ
And it still does
The article
It came in without the article.
Arabic itself had taken it from Greek.
The story
It comes from Greek kerátion, "little horn", the carob pod, whose seeds were used as weights. The Arabic r became l in Spanish.Viene del griego kerátion, «cuernecillo», la vaina del algarrobo, cuyas semillas servían de pesa. La r árabe se hizo l en español.
In a sentence
Un anillo de oro de dieciocho quilates.
An eighteen-carat gold ring.
خَاتَمٌ مِنْ ذَهَبٍ عِيَار ثَمَانِيَةَ عَشَرَ قِيرَاطًا.
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