بكار

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic بِكْر (bikr, “virgin”), but historically confused with the homophone بیكار (bekâr, “unemployed”), a word of Persian origin. Doublet of بكر (bikr, “virgin”).

Adjective

بكار • (bekâr)

1. (of a man) celibate, unmarried, single, unwed, having no wife

   Synonyms: اركن (ergen), عزب (ʼazeb), مجرد (mücerred)

Noun

بكار • (bekâr) (definite accusative بكاری (bekârı), plural بكارلر (bekârlar))

1. bachelor, a person, especially a man, who is socially regarded as able to marry, but has not yet

   Synonym: عازب (ʼazib)

Descendants

• Turkish: bekâr
• → Albanian: beqar
• → Armenian: պէքեար (pēkʻear)
• → Greek: μπεκιάρης (bekiáris)
• → Macedonian: беќар (beḱar)
• → Romanian: becher
• → Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic script: бѐћа̄р

  Latin script: bèćār

Further reading

• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007) “bekâr1”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 1, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 529
• Devellioğlu, Ferit (1962) “bekâr”, in Osmanlıca-Türkçe Ansiklopedik Lûgat‎‎^[1] (in Turkish), Istanbul: Türk Dil Kurumu, page 101
• Kélékian, Diran (1911) “بكار”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎^[2], Constantinople: Mihran, page 272
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1687) “Cælebs”, in Complementum thesauri linguarum orientalium, seu onomasticum latino-turcico-arabico-persicum, simul idem index verborum lexici turcico-arabico-persici, quod latinâ, germanicâ, aliarumque linguarum adjectâ nomenclatione nuper in lucem editum‎^[3], Vienna, column 132
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1680) “بكار”, in Thesaurus linguarum orientalium, Turcicae, Arabicae, Persicae, praecipuas earum opes à Turcis peculiariter usurpatas continens, nimirum Lexicon Turkico-Arabico-Persicum‎^[4], Vienna, column 860
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “bekâr”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “بكار”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎^[5], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 375