Ghurba
/ˈɣʊr.ba/noun
A transliterated Arabic noun meaning estrangement, exile, or being far from home.
Did you know?In Arabic, ghurba is tied to the emotional world of estrangement and longing, and it helped shape a rich literary tradition where separation itself becomes a spiritual condition.
Etymological Timeline
Classical Arabic
Arabic
غُرْبَة (ghurba)
“estrangement, exile, being far from one’s homeland”
Classical Arabic
Arabic
غَرَبَ (gharaba)
“to go away, set, be absent; also to set like the sun”
Proto-Semitic
PSem
*ġ-r-b
“to be distant, to go away, to be foreign or westward”
Modern English
English
ghurba
“A transliterated Arabic term used in English for exile, alienation, or homesickness”