View Message

This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

[Surname] Re: Ansara
in reply to a message by MBA
It looks Arabic and connected to the word ansar, 'helpers'. Ansari is a surname among Muslims identifying someone who claims an ancestry among the early converts to Islam, those who gave aid to the founder of the faith when he was being persecuted.
The singular form of the word is nasr, also found as a male given name. The structure of the Arabic language allows words with similar or variant meanings to be formed from a single base, in this case the letters N.S.R., always in the same order. So Ansara, if Arabic in origin, will mean something like 'helper', 'helping', 'helpful', etc.
vote up1vote down

Replies


Thanks, that's really cool.
vote up1vote down