Etymology

Taliban

T1A1L1I1B3A1N1

Today it means: A Taliban militia. Full definition →

Pashto طالبان ← Arabic طَالِب
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Arabic · derived fromطَالِب“seeker, student”
  2. Pashto · borrowed fromطالبان“students, seekers”
  3. English todayTaliban

Borrowed from Pashto طالبان (tālibān, “students, seekers”), plural of طالب (tālib), from Arabic طَالِب (ṭālib, “seeker, student”).

Words from the same roots

Arabicطَالِب all →

Talib

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.