turkish | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

104 entries found.

1540s, from Turk (n.) + -ish. As a noun, "the Turkish language," from 1718.

"governor of a Turkish district," 1590s, from Turkish bey, a title of honor in princely families, the Osmanli equivalent of Turkish beg, which is cognate with Persian baig "a lord."

vilayet (n.)

"province of the Turkish empire," 1869, from Turkish, from Arabic wilayah "province," from wali "governor," from waliya "he reigned, governed."

bulgur (n.)

cereal food, 1934, from Turkish bulghur, bulgar.

Seljuk

Turkish dynastic family of 11c.-13c., c. 1600 (implied in Selzuccian), from Turkish Seljuq, name of the reputed ancestor of the dynasty.

Istanbul

Turkish name of Constantinople; it developed in Turkish 16c. as a corruption of Greek phrase eis tan (ten) polin "in (or to) the city," which is how the local Greek population referred to it. Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol "plenty of Islam." Greek polis "city" has been adopted into Turkish as a place-name suffix -bolu.

pilaf (n.)

oriental dish of rice boiled with meat, 1610s, pilau (which remains the commoner form in British English), from Turkish pilav, from Persian pilaw. The form perhaps has been influenced by Modern Greek pilafi, which is from the Turkish word, but Ayto ("Diner's Dictionary") writes that from the beginning "the spelling of the word was positively anarchic" and that pilaf "represents a modern Turkish pronunciation."

hummus (n.)

Middle Eastern dish, 1955, from Turkish humus "mashed chick peas."

pasha

Turkish honorary title formerly given to officers of high rank, 1640s, from Turkish pasha, also basha, from bash "head, chief" (no clear distinction between -b- and -p- in Turkish), from Old Persian pati- "master" (from PIE root *poti- "powerful; lord") + root of shah. Earlier in English as bashaw (1530s).

Arnout (n.)

"native of Albania," especially as part of the Turkish military forces, 1717, from Turkish Arnaut, from Modern Greek Arnabites, metathesized from Arbanites, rhotacized from *Albanites, from Medieval Latin Albanus (see Albania).

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