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yataghans

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish یتاغان (modern Turkish yatağan),[1][2] related to Old Turkic [script needed] (yat-, to bend, incline; to lie),[3] whence also words like yatmak (to lie), yatak (bed), yatay (horizontal), etc.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

yataghan (plural yataghans)

  1. A type of sword used in Muslim countries from the mid-16th to late 19th centuries.
    • 1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, Dover, published 1964, page 22:
      The angry-faced official communicated the intelligence to a large group of Anadolian, Caramanian, Bosniac, and Roumelian Turks,— sturdy, undersized, broad-shouldered, bare-legged, splay-footed, horny-fisted, dark-browed, honest-looking mountaineers, who were lounging about with long pistols and yataghans stuck in their broad sashes [...].
    • 1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 1041:
      A Montenegrin perceived it and ran immediately to him and drew his yataghan, saying, “You are very brave, and must wish that I should cut off your head rather than that you should fall into the hands of the enemy.”

Synonyms edit

Translations edit

References edit

  1. ^ James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Yataghan”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume X, Part 2 (V–Z), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 21, column 1.
  2. ^ "yataghan." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary Merriam-Webster. 2008.
  3. ^ Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–), “yatağan”, in Nişanyan Sözlük.