The routes by which trade, encounters and learning reshaped English.
hazard (n.)
Collection
Words That Travelled
A hazard is a danger, a risk that something will go wrong. In English it was first the name of a game of dice, around 1300. The French hasard meant the game and also a throw of six.12
The word may have come into French from Arabic. Merriam-Webster traces it through Spanish azar to Arabic az-zahr, the die, probably borrowed during the Crusades.2
That origin is doubted. The Online Etymology Dictionary notes that zahr does not appear in the classical Arabic dictionaries, and records Ernest Klein’s suggestion of yasara, he played at dice, instead.1
The meaning moved from the throw to the chances of life. Since the 1540s a hazard in English has been a risk of loss or harm.1
The ice on the steps is a hazard.