nawab

English

Etymology

From Hindi नवाब (navāb)/Urdu نواب‎ (navāb), from Persian نوّاب‎ (navvâb), ultimately from Arabic نُوَّاب‎ (nuwwāb), plural of نَائِب‎ (nāʾib, “naib”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nəˈwɑːb/, /nəˈwɔːb/
• Rhymes: -ɑːb, -ɔːb
• Hyphenation: na‧wab

Noun

nawab (plural nawabs)

1. (historical) A Muslim official in South Asia acting as a provincial deputy ruler under the Mughal empire; a local governor. [from 17th c.]
   • 1848-50, William Makepeace Thackeray, Pendennis, ch 38:

     Colonel Altamont, the Nawaub of Lucknow’s prime favourite, an extraordinary man, who had, it was said, embraced Mahometanism, and undergone a thousand wild and perilous adventures was at present in this country, trying to negotiate with the Begum Clavering, the sale of the Nawaub’s celebrated nose-ring diamond, ‘the light of the Dewan.’

   • 2015, Eugene Rogan, The Fall of the Ottomans, Penguin 2016, p. 71:

     The nawabs of Bhopal, Ranput, Murshidabad, and Dhaka, along with the nizam of Hyderabad, all affirmed that the sultan has misled Muslims with his “erroneous” call to jihad and insisted that Indian Muslims had a duty to support Great Britain.

2. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Polyura.

Translations

title

• Arabic: نواب‎ m (nuwwāb)
• Bengali: নওয়াব (nôẇab), নবাব (nôbab)
• Hindi: नवाब (hi) m (navāb)
• Hungarian: navab

• Persian: نواب‎ (fa)
• Telugu: నవాబు (te) (navābu)
• Urdu: نواب‎ m (navāb)

See also

• nabob
• naib

References

• “nawab” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2022.
• “nawab” in the Collins English Dictionary
• “nawab”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
• “nawab” in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “nawab”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

Anagrams

• Waban, ba-wan, bawan, bwana