ABSTRACT
Crusade: word meanings and uses between French and Arabic languages.
The origin of the word crusade dates back to the Middle Ages in Jerusalem. The word is still used today in speeches with different meanings and connotations that vary from one language to another. While the word is generally used in French in the context of defending a cause, the Arabic language develops a family of meanings which remains closely linked to the historical context (11th, 12th, and 13th centuries) where ‘crusade’ expresses a military expedition with an ideological aspect, whose source is always Western. The multiple occurrences accumulate layers of meaning whose connotations are most often positive in French and negative in Arabic. Despite this difference, ‘crusade’ remains the reference event name in both languages. By a comparative study of the meanings and uses of the word between the Arabic and French languages, this chapter purposes to study why ‘crusade’ is usually privileged in different speeches.
