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Old Ottoman guide, a bore, going to a sultanate in Arabia
Answer for the clue "Old Ottoman guide, a bore, going to a sultanate in Arabia ", 8 letters:
dragoman
Alternative clues for the word dragoman
Word definitions for dragoman in dictionaries
Wikipedia
Word definitions in Wikipedia
A dragoman was an interpreter , translator, and official guide between Turkish , Arabic , and Persian -speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies , consulates , vice-consulates and trading posts . A dragoman had to have a ...
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Word definitions in The Collaborative International Dictionary
Dragoman \Drag"o*man\, n.; pl. Dragomans . [From F. dragoman, or Sp. dragoman, or It. dragomanno; all fr. LGr. ?, Ar. tarjum[=a]n, from the same source as E. targum. Cf. Drogman , Truchman .] An interpreter; -- so called in the Levant and other parts of ...
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
n. an interpreter and guide in the Near East; in the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries a translator of European languages for the Turkish and Arab authorities and most dragomans were Greek (many reached high positions in the government)
Wiktionary
Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. An interpreter, especially for the Arabic and Turkish languages.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 14c., from Old French drugemen , from late Greek dragoumanos , from Arabic targuman "interpreter," from targama "interpret." Treated in English as a compound, with plural -men .
Usage examples of dragoman.
I will conclude this wild romance in the words of Hassan, the dragoman, as nearly as I can recall them.
The dragoman held a broken gold chain in his hand, from which depended a big turquoise that seemed to blink in the shaded light.
Mohammed the dragoman, by birth and education a thief, by nature a sluggard, spared no effort to reach Cairo in the shortest space of time humanly possible.
But would anything make that blackguard of a dragoman open his mouth to speak?
In order to do fieldwork he needed a competent dragoman, or guide and interpreter, who could oversee his thieving workmen and hand out baksheesh up and down the Nile.
Menelik remained the perfect dragoman in every respect, even after he was freed.
Right now you need a trade and I think you should start as a dragoman, as I did.
The minority who hired dragomen to venture into back streets were those seeking the sexual license associated with the East, an anonymous debauchery far from home, exactly what a dragoman could provide.
Each day at noon he went to the office of the Clerk of the Acts, the senior dragoman in the city and the head of their benevolent association, whose job it was to advise apprentices and distribute assignments.
He was still a slave and a common dragoman, but he did speak Coptic and clearly possessed the keen powers of observation that would one day decipher the secrets of so many tombs.
Well, you see, when I worked as a dragoman in Egypt back before the war I found there were occasions, not as infrequent as you might think, when an older woman, even a much older woman, could be strongly attracted to a much younger man.
Ahmad, was once a famous dragoman in Cairo, the leading guide and interpreter for tourists in these parts and something of a patron saint to those in the pimp and alcohol trades.
He moved to Cairo as a young man and learned the European tongues in order to be able to support himself by working as a dragoman, while quietly launching his study of hieroglyphs between backstairs assignations with tourists.
Egyptologist was focused entirely on that extremely brief period when the young Menelik had worked as a dragoman one winter in Cairo, in order to support himself while beginning his study of hieroglyphs.
In those days a dragoman could only find work during the winter tourist season.