On this week's radio show the guests discussing Portuguese tile work called, roughly, azulejos
appear to conclude with Rick that the word's origin means ~a ceramic tile~
but it does not -- it comes from the blue coloring of the fired tiles
Azul in the Spanish language families and its variants
ultimately comes from the Arabic and Persian name for the stone/color also known in the west as lapis lazuli.
Like many borrowed words from Arabic, (for instance 'algebra') the indefinite article gets altered or dropped,
hence the shortening to azul.
Be sure to visit the Casa de Azulejos when you are in Mexico City!
[This is akin to turqoise meaning the Turkish color.]
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