emir

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French emir, also emyr (now émir),^[2][3][4][5] and partly directly borrowed from Arabic أمير (amīr, “commander, ruler, prince”),^[2][6][7][8] which was pronounced with e- in colloquial Arabic.^[2][3] The Arabic noun is derived from a verb meaning to order or command.^{[2][4][9][10][3]} In the sense of a descendant of the Prophet, the French word came through Ottoman Turkish امیر (emīr), modern emir, and some later uses for a ruler came partly through Urdu or Persian.^[2][1] Collins derives the French word from Spanish emir.^[11] The Arabic word passed into other European languages too, in some cases through French: Portuguese emir (1513), Italian emiro, Dutch emir (1619) and German Emir (1681).^[2] It is related to admiral, which goes back to the same Arabic word, and amir and ameer are other spellings of it.^{[6][9][10][12][2]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A ruler, governor or military commander in an Islamic country: 1542, in an English translation of Geuffroy's account of the Turkish court.^[2] Other dictionaries date it later: the 1590s in Etymonline, 1595 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Concise Barnhart,^[6][7][13] and 1623, with the spelling “emeer” from 1612, in the full Barnhart.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From 1585 to 1840 the word was also used, especially of Turkey, for a person claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatima, a sense now obsolete;^[2] the Shorter Oxford calls it now rare and dates it to the late 16th century, before the sense of ruler (mid 17th century).^[14] Weekley notes that such descendants wore green, the Prophet's colour, and quotes Byron's Giaour: "An emir by his garb of green".^[15] Etymonline describes the emir among Arabic or Muslim peoples as the chief of a family or tribe, or a ruling prince.^[6] In modern use it is a title of rulers and chieftains, especially in Arabia and Africa.^[7][11]

Timeline

• 1542 – a ruler, governor or military commander in an Islamic country.^[2]
• 1585 – a descendant of Muhammad through Fatima, especially in Turkey (obsolete by 1840).^[2]
• 1612 – the spelling “emeer”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ruler, prince or chieftain in a Muslim country, especially in Arabia and Africa, often used as a title.^[7][11][14]
2. A military commander or governor in the Islamic world.^[11][2]
3. (now rare) A descendant of Muhammad, especially through his daughter Fatima.^{[14][2][11][9]}

Word family

• emirate

Related words

• admiral
• amir
• ameer

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray