I only now discovered what the word Khaleej means... before I had an idea in that it referred to a geographical area, but like many words, it's pretty obvious....

so, go on?

I thought it meant "gulf", but could be making that up...

Isn't it more of a combination of political, cultural and geographic factors referring to the GCC?

I was told it just means 'Peninsula'. The 'Khaleej Al Arabi' is the Arabian Peninsula ie. Saudi Arabia + Bahrain + Qatar + UAE + Oman + Yemen - and the term is most significant as meaning the home of Islam.

Khaleejis is the group term for all Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula and whatever is related to them culturally, so there is khaleeji music, khaleeji dress etc.

Not so sure now??

Pretty much spot on... it does mean "gulf" and usually specifically the Persian / Arabian Gulf. The term supposedly didn't exist before the GCC was formed.

I always know roughly what the term meant - but was interested to find out more about the actual meaning / translation...

Anyway - it interested me for a while!

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1387594

Err...but "gulf" means part of a sea, whereas a peninsula is part of a land mass. Hence the Persian Gulf / Arabian Gulf debate, equivalent to the English Channel / La Manche debate.

Looked it up in an Arabic dictionary and it means 'bay' apparently, and hence also gulf, which is just a very large bay; so it does refer to the sea area not the land. Presumably this means it excludes the Yemenis?

From wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaleeji - apparently it was a proposed name for the GCC single currency.

If you're a Yemeni, it doesn't. If you're not Yemeni, it most certainly does.

Morrocco and Jordan will be part of the Khaleej (probably by Dec if the Jordan King signs)

Morocco not a bit far?

/takes out paint brush

/colors you stupid

/puts away paint brush



I just thought it was Arabic-English for College....

jk

U.