sultán

Forms

sultán m (plural sultanes, feminine sultana, feminine plural sultanas)^[1]

Etymology

The DLE and Moliner take it borrowed from Turkish sultan, while Corominas derives it directly from Arabic سلطان (sulṭān, “king”); he dates this form to 1586.^[2][3][4] Corriente, Pereira and Vicente note that the forms with /t/ seem to have come through Italian sultano.^[5] The Arabic word meant “royal power” and then “sovereign”.^[6] Wiktionary traces it further to Aramaic שולטנא (šulṭānā, “power”).^[1]

The older Spanish form was soldán, recorded from the mid-14th century, which came from Andalusian Arabic سلطان (sulṭán), the Andalusian form of the same Arabic word.^[4][7][5] The same word is Catalan soldà, Portuguese soldão and Italian soldano beside the form with /t/.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form sultán is first recorded in 1586.^[4] Before it, Alfonso X's Estoria de España (c. 1270) already speaks of the soldan de Persia and the soldan de Babilonna, and Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor calls Saladin soldán de Babilonia.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The medieval soldán was used above all for the Muslim rulers of Persia and Egypt.^[7] Sultán became the title of the Ottoman emperor, and the Academy still defined it in that sense first.^[2][9] It is used more widely for a Muslim prince or governor, and figuratively for a man who lives in luxury: vive como un sultán is recorded in Mexico in 1849.^[2][10] The feminine sultana is recorded from 1739.^[4] In Puerto Rico sultán is also a hand press for printing proofs.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1270 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España has the older form soldán.^[8]
• 1586 – first record of sultán.^[4]
• 1692 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, of the sultan Suleiman.^[10]
• 1739 – first record of the feminine sultana.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sultan, the emperor of the Turks.^[2][3]
2. A Muslim prince or governor.^[2][1]

Word family

• sultana
• sultanía

Related words

• soldán
• Arabic سلطان (sulṭān)

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sultán
3. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sultán
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sultán
5. ^ a b c Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. soldà
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. sultán
7. ^ a b Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. soldán
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sultán
9. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 408
10. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. sultán
11. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. sultán