Arabic can also be an adjective referred to the language.

We might need to get Grant and Martha to make a ruling on this.

And then you've got "gum arabic" and "Arabian horses".

Post edited 7:37AM – Dec-04-10 by Bob Bridges

I've never heard a rule on "Arabic country" versus "Arab country", but just for the fun of reviving an old one, allow me to pontificate on how it is that "Arab", a noun, can serve as an adjective. Germanic languages do this all the time, but I don't see it in the Romance languages at all:

Properly speaking, as torpeau said, "Arab" is just a noun, not an adjective. But in English any noun can serve as an adjective, just by sticking it in front of another noun. "Cat" is a noun, but we know what a "cat person" is. This is so common a feature of English (and of every other Germanic language I can think of) that we don't think about it: We have bookworms, library books, reference libraries, sports references, contact sports, business contacts, computer businesses, business offices, office computers and on without end.

So there's no reason we can't have Arab countries, Arab policies, Arab culture and so forth, without "Arab" becoming an adjective.

And by the way we can tack these nouns together in longer chains. On my drive from NC to Indianapolis after Thanksgiving I traveled through Virginia on I-77. There I passed through the "East River Mountain Tunnel". Spanish- and French-speakers might have to think about this a little, but to a visitor from Sweden or Germany it's obvious that someone once named the East River, and the mountain next to it should be the East River Mountain, and the tunnel through the mountain…. No doubt someday they'll build a church near there and name it the East River Mountain Tunnel Church. The road that passes by the church could be East River Mountain Tunnel Church Street, and the bridge that crosses over that street could be—well, you get the idea.

I said I don't see this in the Romance languages at all, but on second thought that was an exaggeration: As far as I've noticed they do it only rarely, with very common pairs, and only two nouns at a time. One of my teachers, whose English was normally excellent, got in a hurry once and referred to a feather-goose—then immediately corrected himself and said "goose feather". He was from France. And there's something like it in Hebrew, too, but I get the impression that they use it only for possession, so that "sooss David" means "David's horse". Not quite the same thing, as I understand it.