Crossword clues for dragoman
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 the East.
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.
Wiktionary
n. An interpreter, especially for the Arabic and Turkish languages.
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)
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 knowledge of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and European languages.
The position took particular prominence in the Ottoman Empire, where demand for the mediation provided by dragomans is said to have been created by the resistance on the part of the Muslim Ottomans to learn the languages of non-Muslim nations. The office incorporated diplomatic as well as linguistic duties—namely, in the Porte's relation with Christian countries—and some dragomans thus came to play crucial roles in Ottoman politics. The profession tended to be dominated by ethnic Greeks, including the first Ottoman Grand Dragoman Panayotis Nicosias, the official interpreter for the Divan (Council) of the Sultan, and Alexander Mavrocordatos. But this dominance changed in 1821 with the start of the Greek insurrection and eventual independence; the last Greek grand dragoman, Stavraki Aristarchi, was charged with complicity with the rebels and executed. With unanswered correspondence accumulating, the chief naval instructor, one Ishak Efendi, took over the position and became a pioneer in translation of Western scientific literature into Turkish, a task for which he had to create an entirely new vocabulary. Following Ishak, the grand dragoman and his staff were Muslims, and the Translation Office (Tercüme Odası, "Translation Room", in Turkish), with its familiarity with things European, became a new major ladder to influence and power in the Tanzimat era; this knowledge largely replaced the older ladders of the army, the bureaucracy, and the religious establishment in the mid- and late-19th century.
It became customary that most hospodars of the Phanariote rule (roughly 1711–1821) over the Danubian Principalities ( Moldavia and Wallachia) would previously have occupied this Ottoman office, a fact which did not prevent many of them from joining conspiracies that aimed to overthrow Turkish rule over the area.
Dragoman was a historical title used by official interpreters in the Ottoman Empire and other Turkish, Arabic, and Persian-speaking polities.
Dragoman may also refer to:
- Dragoman, Bulgaria
- Dragoman Municipality, Bulgaria
- Dragoman Glacier, Antarctica
- Dragoman marsh, the biggest natural karst wetland in Bulgaria
- Lucian Yahoo Dragoman, a Romanian child fraudulently claimed to have been named after web portal Yahoo!
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.