From the triliteral root ر-ح-ل (r-ḥ-l), whose core meaning revolves around saddling up and setting off. The noun رَحْلَة (riḥla) "journey, trip" shares this root, as does رَحَّالَة "explorer/traveller." The root appears in classical Arabic literature as early as pre-Islamic poetry, where mounting a camel for a long desert journey was the prototypical act of "rahala."

Travel and departure carry deep resonance in Arabic literary culture. The classical genre of رِحْلَة (riḥla) — travel writing — produced masterpieces like Ibn Baṭṭūṭa's famous 14th-century account of his journeys across the Islamic world. In everyday Modern Standard Arabic and many dialects, رَحَلَ can also be used as a euphemism for death ("he departed"), so context matters. In Egyptian dialect the related word راح (rāḥ) is the dominant colloquial equivalent for "went/left."