Lessons in Palestinian Arabic: Now on Lesson 2

[Astraios]

I've always heard ع-ر-ب is related to ע-ב-ר (pass; go by; Hebrew), and it originally had a meaning like 'nomadic'. I can see the 'cart' meaning coming from that.

[tiramisu]

They come from the same root. I once read that the meaning "cart" originally refers to nomadic caravans, and actually outdates the meaning referring to the Arab people -- the latter having developed as a pejorative term among the more sedentary Arabs to refer to nomads.