The alt.usage.english FAQ   

• the the "hoi polloi" debate

  (Usage Disputes)
  
  

  
     Yes, "hoi" means "the" in Greek, but the first 5 citations in the
  OED, and the most famous use of this phrase in English (in Gilbert
  and Sullivan's operetta _Iolanthe_), put "the" in front of "hoi".
  This is not a unique case:  words like "alchemy", "alcohol",
  "algebra", "alligator", and "lacrosse" incorporate articles from
  other languages, but can still be prefixed in English with "the".
  "The El Alamein battle" (which occurred in Egypt during World War
  II), sometimes proffered as a phrase with three articles, actually
  contains only two:  _alamein_ is Arabic for "two flags" (which is
  appropriate for a town on the border between Egypt and Libya), and
  does not contain the Arabic article _al_.

  
  
  Source: [Mark Israel, 'Usage Disputes: the the "hoi polloi" debate', The alt.usage.english FAQ file,(line 2519), (29 Sept 1997)]
  
  
  
  

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