DRAGOMAN • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Dragoman

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Dragoman

noun

(pl. dragomans)

An interpreter and guide in the Near East; in the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries a translator of European languages for the Turkish and Arab authorities and most dragomans were Greek (many reached high positions in the government).

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Etymology of 'Dragoman'

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"Dragoman" Quotes from Famous Books

... then, Mr. Halliwell is bound to lend us the aid of his great learning wherever his author has introduced foreign words and the old printers have made pie of them. In a single case he has accepted his responsibility as dragoman, and the amount of his success is not such as to give us any poignant regret that he has everywhere else left us to our own devices. On p. 119, Vol. II., Francischina, a Dutchwoman, exclaims, "O, mine aderliver love." Here is Mr. Halliwell's note. "Aderliver.—This is the speaker's ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 7, May, 1858 • Various

... made by the principals to the suit. There is no mention of an advocate, or solicitor. But the verb generally used of the plea ragamu, gives rise to targumanu, the original of the modern dragoman. He usually appears in later texts as the "interpreter," but may originally have been the "advocate." At any rate, in the bilingual days he might well have combined the offices. Another verb common at this period, pakaru, gave rise to pakiranu, ...

— Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters • C. H. W. Johns

Words linked to "Dragoman" : interpreter, translator