kırkyılda bir
Turkish
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editInherited from Ottoman Turkish قرق ییلده بر (ḳırḳ yılda bir),[1] equivalent to kırk (“forty”) + yıl (“year”) + -da (locative suffix) + bir (“a, one, indefinite determiner”), literally “once in/every forty years”.
Pronunciation
editAdverb
edit- (idiomatic) very rarely, once in a blue moon
- Synonyms: kırkyılın başı, ayda yılda bir
- (idiomatic) finally after a very long time
- Synonym: kırkyılın başı
Related terms
editReferences
edit- ^ Redhouse, James W. (1890) “قرق ییلده بر”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon[1], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 2223
Further reading
edit- “kırkyılda bir”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
- Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007) “kırk yılda bir”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 2624