Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of a pre-Islamic nomadic people of the Syrian and Arabian Deserts.
  • noun A Muslim, especially of the time of the Crusades.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A name given by the later Romans and Greeks to the nomadic tribes on the Syrian borders of the Roman empire; after the introduction of Mohammedanism, an Arab; by extension applied to Turks and other Mohammedans, and even to all non-Christian peoples against whom a crusade was preached.
  • noun One who continued to use the old low-framed Saracenic loom in the production of arras or Saracenic tapestry, as distinguished from those who adopted the high frame.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Anciently, an Arab; later, a Mussulman; in the Middle Ages, the common term among Christians in Europe for a Mohammedan hostile to the crusaders.
  • noun (Bot.) a kind of ragwort (Senecio Saracenicus), anciently used to heal wounds.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A group of nomadic people from the Sinai.
  • noun dated An Arab or any Muslim, especially one involved in the Crusades.
  • noun dated A pirate in the Mediterranean.
  • noun A type of six-wheeled armoured personnel carrier.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (when used broadly) any Arab
  • noun (historically) a Muslim who opposed the Crusades
  • noun (historically) a member of the nomadic people of the Syrian and Arabian deserts at the time of the Roman Empire

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English, from Late Latin Saracēnus, from Late Greek Sarakēnos, ultimately from Arabic šarq, east, sunrise; see śrq in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek Σαρακηνός (Sarakēnos), which may be from Arabic شرقيين (sharqiyyin, "easterners"), though the Oxford English Dictionary disputes this.

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  • "2. One who continued to use the old low-framed Saracenic loom in the production of arras or Saracenic tapestry, as distinguished from those who adopted the high frame."

    --from the Century Dictionary

    December 28, 2010