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Glite Dictionary
United Arab Republic

United Arab Republic

7.5
A country formed by Egypt and Syria in 1958 that Egypt used as its name until 1971
  • proper noun
  • Literature
translation icon : República Árabe Unida
  • President Nasser attained the pinnacle of his popularity when Syria joined him in 1958 to form the United Arab Republic.
  • United Arab Republic (UAR) of Egypt

Examples

  • The United Arab Republic was created in 1958 as a political union between Egypt and Syria.

  • He followed this by changing the official name of the country from the United Arab Republic to the Arab Republic of Egypt.

    Academic text (1991)

  • The failure of the United Arab Republic between Egypt and Syria the year before, however, made success in Yemen essential to Nasser.

    Academic text (2017)

  • Following the unification, the United Arab Republic was recognized internationally until its dissolution in 1961.

  • Egypt continued to use the name United Arab Republic until it officially became the Arab Republic of Egypt in 1971.

Surface Forms

United Arab Republic main

Morphology

united + Arab + republic

The meaning is directly compositional: 'united' (joined together) + 'Arab' (relating to Arab people/region) + 'republic' (a state governed by representatives), so a learner who knows the words can infer it denotes a political state formed by Arab entities joining together. While historical specifics (which countries and dates) are not predictable from the phrase, the basic referent as a united Arab state is transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

United Arab Republic comes from the simple idea of countries joining: United ('joined'), Arab (Arabic-speaking), and Republic ('a country without a king'). It was the official name when Egypt and Syria 'joined' as one country in 1958 and Egypt kept the name until 1971, so today the phrase refers to that political union.