Category Archives: Titles

Word of the Day – AGHA

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AGHA or AGA /AH.guh/ n. a title, sometimes hereditary, used for a civil, military, or spiritual leader, especially in Turkey

For example, in the days of the Ottoman Empire when a member of the Turkish infantry was called a JANISSARY (also JANIZARY or JANISARY), the chief of the Sultan’s guards was referred to as the Janissary Agha. Hey look! Here comes one now…

Word of the Day AGHA
Another example, this time in a religious context, is Aga Khan, which is the hereditary title of the leader (or more accurately, the IMAM) of the Shia Muslim Nizari Ismaili sect.

Usually, the crossword clues for this little fellow are rather pedestrian things like [Turkish title] or [Ottoman officer], although I did once get a chuckle out of the punny [Khan opener?].

As always, I learned a bunch of cool new words while researching this one.

One article described today’s word as an AULIC title. I suppose I should know the word aulic, but I don’t. At least I didn’t. It means ‘of or relating to a royal court’. That’s actually a handy vocabulary word, so I’m going to try to remember it. Don’t be surprised if I sneak it into one or two daily words just for practice. (This service isn’t just for *you*, by the way!)

Then, just for fun, I checked to see if the word agha had any Scrabbly extensions. That’s how I discovered YATAGHAN (also ATAGHAN or YATAGAN). Turns out a yataghan is an old Turkish dagger that is usually long and curved. And you know what?

If you look really closely at the guy on the horse, I reckon he is actually carrying one!

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Word of the Day – EMIR

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EMIR /eh.MEER or uh.MEER/ n. a title given to independent rulers in certain Islamic countries

The man in the picture, for example, is Sheikh Jaber Al-Sabah, who was a very influential  Kuwaiti emir until he died in 2006.

So long as your geography isn’t too bad, you probably won’t struggle with typical clues for this one: [Arab dignitary], [Dubai leader], or [Qatar bigwig].

The province or state over which an emir presides is often referred to as an EMIRATE. You’ve probably heard of the United Arab Emirates, for example. If you’ve been there, you may have even flown with the airline known as Emirates! (A native of an emirate is often referred to as an Emirati, but don’t expect to get away with that one on the Scrabble board.)

Today’s word has a bunch of variant spellings, including AMIR (which is actually closest to the original), followed by EMEER and AMEER. Furthermore, all variants allow the -ate extension, a symmetry not always respected by dictionaries. So you’re getting quite a few words for the price of one today ;-)

Actually, Islamic culture has always been a wonderful source of Scrabbly titles, with others you might want to investigate including the SHEIKH (pronounced /shake/, so always a goodie for spelling bees), CALIPH, MIRZA, VIZIER, IMAM, WAZIR, and (my favorite Y-dump) the SAYYID, along with the plethora of variant spellings the process of transliteration has bred.

One Muslim title that entertained me this morning comes from the Persian word Amirzade, which refers to the male descendant of an amir (with the -zade part having to do with ‘birth’).

It turns out that when this word is spoken, the emphasis is on the bit I’ve bolded in Amirzadi. And this is where the lovely word MIRZA (a Muslim prince by blood) comes from. (Incidentally, I thought its anagram, ZIRAM, might belong in today’s story too, but alas, it is a type of chemical salt or something.)

DISCLAIMER: I am not, and have never (in any sober context at least ) claimed to be, an etymologist, linguist, lexicologist, or other professional associated with the scholarly study of words. In fact, if I’m to believe what my friends tell me, I’m not a professional at anything.

 

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