Bazaar and Bizarre Are Not Related
A bazaar is a market of small shops. Its similar-looking neighbour bizarre comes from somewhere else entirely.
A bazaar is a permanent market of small shops and stalls, especially in the Middle East and South Asia. Despite the near-identical sound, it has nothing to do with *bizarre*: bazaar is Persian for market, while bizarre came through French and Italian and may derive from a Basque word for beard. Two spellings, two continents, no connection.
- A market of small shops. *The Grand Bazaar.*
- A charity sale. *A church bazaar.*
- Bazaar as a modifier. *Bazaar traders.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | bazaar | A covered bazaar. |
| Plural | bazaars | Old bazaars. |
| Related | souk | A Moroccan souk. |
| Related | market | A street market. |
| Not related | bizarre | A bizarre story. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The Grand Bazaar has thousands of shops.Istanbul, one of the largest covered markets in the world.
- The school held a Christmas bazaar.A charity sale.
- Souk is the Arabic equivalent.Same idea, different language.
Market words from other languages
- Bazaar — Persian
- Souk — Arabic
- Agora — Greek
- Forum — Latin
- Emporium — Greek, a trading place
From Persian *bazar*, market, reaching English through Italian in the sixteenth century. *Bizarre* is a separate word of disputed origin.
Bazaar or bizarre?
Bazaar is a market, bizarre means strange. They are unrelated words that happen to sound alike.
Bazaar or souk?
They describe the same kind of market. Bazaar comes from Persian and souk from Arabic, and each is used in its own region.