muezzin

Etymology

It is borrowed from Arabic مُؤَذِّن (muʾaḏḏin, “one who calls to prayer”),^[2][1][3][4] apparently partly through French, where it is recorded as Middle French maizin in 1568 and as muezin in 1654.^[2] The Arabic word is the active participle of a verb meaning to call to prayer, which comes from the same base as azan, the call to prayer,^[2][5] and is ultimately formed from the word for "ear".^[6][3][7][8] The spelling with z reflects the widespread regional pronunciation of the Arabic sound ḏ (/ð/ in classical Arabic) as /z/,^[2][9][6] as in Turkish müezzin;^[2] the American Heritage Dictionary, Dictionary.com and Wiktionary derive the English word from Ottoman Turkish مؤذن (müezzin).^[5][10][1] Klein relates the Arabic word for ear to its Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac counterparts and to Akkadian uznu (“ear”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A public crier who calls the hours of prayer from a minaret or the roof of a mosque: 1585, in T. Washington's translation of Nicolas de Nicolay's Navigations.^[2][4][9] Dictionary.com dates it to 1575–85,^[10] and Etymonline to the 1580s.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed close to the Arabic.^[2][4] The OED notes that the call to prayer is made at the times of the five daily ritual prayers and at noon on Fridays.^[2] Early forms varied, and some reflect a regional pronunciation with /d/, like French moudin (1611);^[2] Purchas explained the office as "clarke, sexten, priest, bell-ringer".^[7] From 1907 the word was also used figuratively,^[2] as in Arnold Bennett's "steam muezzins calling the faithful to work", of factory hooters.^[7]

Timeline

• 1585 – a crier who calls Muslims to prayer.^[2][4][9]
• 1907 – in extended, figurative use.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Islam) The official of a mosque who calls the faithful to prayer five times a day, traditionally from a minaret.^[12][4][2]
2. In extended use, anything that summons people to some regular duty.^[2][7]

Related words

• azan

Usage notes

Other spellings are muazzin and, less commonly, mu'adhdhin.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins