From someone who worked as a translator for a while, here are some Arabic words & concepts that are drastically misused, particularly in writing. Thread

As a baseline: An Arab is a person, Arabic is a language, Arabian means “from Arabia”, usually used for the horse. Mixing them up is...not cool, maybe even offensive.

“Abdul” is neither a first nor a last name. Your Arab neighbor told you to use it for them ‘cause it makes things easier, but it’s still not a name. It’s a prefix that needs another word after it to complete the real name.

Contrary to popular belief, Abdul doesn’t really denote any specific faith. Don’t presume your neighbor’s faith based solely on this prefix.

“Al-” or “El-” means “The”. Using either depends on the locale and the dialect, so they’re not exactly interchangeable. Harun al-Rashid would translate to “Harun the Wise”.

“Shaykh” means “old man”. It can be used for a tribal leader, a cleric, an elder, or just any elderly dude.
It doesn’t mean “oil baron.”

“Nicknames” in Arabic is a large & complex topic that doesn’t fit here at all. But just remember that applying the “western” way of nicknaming an Arab person sounds pretty jarring to an Arabophone.

Similarly, the way an Arabic name is constructed can tell a lot about where the person originally comes from. Don’t just mash up a couple names from a baby names website.

Sultan is indeed an Arabic word, but not every Arab ruler was a sultan. Even more, /many/ sultans weren’t actually Arabs or even ruled Arabic-speaking lands.