çelebi
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Turkish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Nominalization of the adjective çelebî (“respectful, mature”), from Çalap + -î. Origin of the nominal part Çalap (“God, Allah”) (obsolete in Modern Turkish, cf. Old Anatolian Turkish [script needed] (çalap, “Allah”)), is unclear beyond Old Anatolian Turkish stage;
- According to Nişanyan,[1] from "Old Turkish" (probably from an Oghuz-Turkmen dialect) *čalab (“a holy person, God”), from Classical Syriac ܨܠܝܒܐ (ṣəlīḇā, “cross”). He assumes this word must have been borrowed from Nestorian or Manicheist religious literature. Syriac form in his work, "ܨܠܒ" also has a secondary meaning; "(figuratively) God, rabbi". He refuses a relation with or a derivation from the native Turkish word yalap (“fire, flame”) (v. yalın (“flame”)).
- According to Erdal,[2] ultimately from Arabic جَلَّاب (jallāb, “importer, import merchant”) with a semantic evolution of "merchant" > "rich" > "person in high social position".
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]çelebi (definite accusative çelebiyi, plural çelebiler)
- a honorific title given to Bektashi Dedebabas and chief masters of the Mevlevi Order.
- a honorific title given to noble, elegant, educated and knowledgeable people, mostly in Islamic contexts.
- (rare) a honorific title given to Sultans.
- (obsolete) a kind and gentle person, a gentleman
- 1680, Thesaurus Linguarum Orientalium:
- (please add the primary text of this quotation)
- sen çelebi, ben çelebi, bu atı kim kaşır?
- [If] you are a gentleman, [and if] I am a gentleman, [then] who combs [the hairs of] this horse there?
- (obsolete) a Christian merchant
Declension
[edit]Adjective
[edit]çelebi
References
[edit]- ^ Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “çelebi”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
- ^ Erdal, Marcel. (1982) "Early Turkish Names for the Muslim God and the Title Çelebi" in Asian and African Studies pp. 411-416
- “çelebi”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
Categories:
- Turkish terms suffixed with -î
- Turkish terms inherited from Old Anatolian Turkish
- Turkish terms derived from Old Anatolian Turkish
- Turkish terms derived from Classical Syriac
- Turkish terms derived from Arabic
- Turkish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Turkish lemmas
- Turkish nouns
- Turkish terms with rare senses
- Turkish terms with obsolete senses
- Turkish adjectives