1540: hazard Mar 2, 2019

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Gambling is certainly risky business, and while this isn’t reflected in the word ‘gambling’ itself—which is thought to come from ‘game’—the word ‘hazad’ does hint at this. Ultimately, the English word ‘hazard’ comes from the Persian ‘zār’ meaning ‘dice’. However, the reason why the English word is so different looking today, is that, like many words that are derived from this region, it travel via Arabic in the form of ‘az-zahr’, and then Spanish in the period of Moorish rule, next to Old French in the time that the Normans controlled English. 
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