Muslim

-FOR MUSLIMS-
Mosque = Mosquito?
The English word used today to indicate the place of worship for Muslims, is "mosque". It is derived from the word "mosqee" or "masged" from the way it was pronounced by Muslims living in Spain during the seven hundred and fifty year reign of Islam in that part of the world. This pronounciation is still used today in Northern Africa in places like Egypt, where the letter "jeem" is pronounced as "geem" with a hard "g" sound, as in "give" instead of the sound of "j" as in "jam". For example, an Egyptian Muslims might say to me, in Egyptian English, "I have to pray gumma in the mosged" (I have to pray jummah in the masjid). The French used the Latin letters and spelled what they heard as "masgeed" and "mosqee" with no intent whatever to make it related to the word for the pesky mosquito.