bedouin from the arabic badaw pl badw or badawiyyn are a part of a predominantly desert dwelling arabian ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans known in arabic as air the term bedouin derives from a plural form of the arabic word badaw as it is pronounced in colloquial dialects the arabic term badaw derives from the word bdiyah which means semiarid desert as opposed to aar which means desert starting in the late nineteenth century many bedouin under british rule began to transit to a s 2b0208a.jpg from hedacademy dérivés View Photo