Abd (Arabic)

Abd (عبد) is an Arabic word meaning one who is totally subordinated; a slave or a servant.

Abid ( عابد ) is a given name meaning "worshipper". It is based on the Arabic word "Ibadah", i.e. worship. The female version of the name is Abida.

The word can also be transliterated into English as 'Abd, where the apostrophe ' indicates the ayin, denoting a gutteral "a" sound.

It appears in many common Arab names followed by Al (the) in form of "Abd ul", "Abd ul-", etc.; this is also commonly translitated as "el-," in the form "Abd el-", meaning "servant of the-". This is always followed by one of the names for God. These names are given in List of Arabic theophoric names and 99 Names of God.

A widespread name Abdullah (name) (or 'Abd Allah) means "servant of God" or "worshipper of God". =* Abdul lah (“slave of divinity” or “servant of divinity”)
 * (This is synonym to Abdullah, because Allah is a contraction of al-Ilah from al, “the”, and Ilah is also the Arabic for “God”.)
 * Abd Rabbi-hi (“slave of your Lord” or “servant of your Lord”)
 * Abduh (“His slave” or “His servant”)
 * Abdul Nabi (“slave of the Prophet” or “servant of the Prophet”)

It can also be used by Arab Christians and Arabic-speaking Christians, just as long as it is associated to their religion:


 * Abdul Masih (“slave of the Messiah” or “servant of the Messiah”)
 * Abdul Salib (“slave of the Cross” or “servant of the Cross”)
 * Abdul Shahid (“slave of the Martyr [i.e. Jesus Christ]” or “servant of the Martyr”)
 * Abdul Yasu ("slave of Jesus" or "servant of Jesus")
 * Abida
 * Abidi

Abdullah can be also used by Arab Christians, as they refer to God as Allah.

Further Notes
The word Abd is a cognate with the Hebrew word "eved" (עבד), meaning slave.

As "abd" means "slave" in Arabic, the word is sometimes used as a pejorative term to refer to black people.

Slur
Abd, abid means slave, 'Abd (pl., 'abid): slave, esp. "black" slave, in traditional Arab Muslim slavery.

It's attached to not only past & present Slaves but to any blacks in general have been called the pejorative "Abid," which means black slave by northerners and the racist janjaweed Arab militas. From "Complicity with evil": the United Nations in the age of modern genocide (Adam LeBor): The Sudanese soldiers and Janjaweed abuse their victims as “Abid” or “Zurka,” meaning slave or “dirty black.”, as the Janjaweed "clings to the notion of Arab racial identity," racism . Arabs (mainly the elite) in Sudan call non-Arab Africans abid or slave, and zurga, which means Black, but is used as a racial slur. The State Department report documents that Janjaweed raiders commonly use racial epithets such as, "Kill the slaves; Kill the slaves!" and "We have orders to kill all the black." Royal African Society says that the character of Arab supremacism is manifest in a racist vocabulary and in sexual violence. the term abid, to refer to all Darfurians, has been adopted by Some Arab supremacists to refer to non-Arab Darfurians. "'Abid also calls to mind the ambition for the Arabs to become masters of the hakura, with the other inhabitants reduced to subjugate." It has been especially during rapes of non-Arab women by the Arab fighters they've been calling the girls such Arabic slurs as “zurga” (black) and “abid.” In another example, Hamesa (the victim) said, using a derogatory word meaning "blacks."'They said, You are abid, abid, abid. You cannot stay here", They said, we'll kill all the men in the village and we'll leave the women in the village like slaves to help us do everything we want."

like other non-Arab minortities in the Middle East, blacks in Iraq have history of suffering racism from Arabs, The lighter-skinned children called her abid, which means slave. Black Iraqis consider it a serious insult. "Discrimination exists in our community," one black Iraqi has put it:" "When I hear Abid (slave), the first thing that comes to mind is a black man or black woman." An author says "They called Haweya (her sister) and I Abid, which means, 'Slaves'. Being called a slave - the racial prejudice this term conveyed - was a big part of what I hated in Saudi Arabia".