Nevertheless, this term was also widely used in medieval Greece, Egypt and further Mediterranean areas attributing to West European people generally. In addition, similar expressions can be found in other languages as well. For instance, there is the Persian “farangg”, the Hindi ‘farengi/farangi’, the Tamil “pirangi”, the Arabic ‘frangi’ and the Polynesian “palangi”. These terms all sound very similar and point to a common origin.
In fact, the Thai word ‘farang’ was borrowed from Muslim Persian and Indian traders during the Ayutthaya period (1350-1767). During that time this term referred to the Portuguese who were the first Europeans to visit Siam. Later, the term became a generic Thai word for other Europeans as well and finally to all Caucasians generally.