Etymology

Benghazi

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Today it means: A port city in eastern Libya. Full definition →

Ottoman Turkish بنغازی ← Arabic بِنْغَازِي
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The story

  1. Arabic · derived fromبِنْغَازِي
  2. Ottoman Turkish · derived fromبنغازی
  3. English todayBenghazi

From Ottoman Turkish بنغازی (Bingâzi) and Arabic بِنْغَازِي (binḡāzī), apparently from earlier مرسى بني غازي (“port of ibn Ghazi”) first attested on a 1579 map by Ali al-Sharfi. Possibly a reference to a Muslim holy man Sidi ibn Ghazi. "Ibn Ghazi" itself can literally be translated as "son of the ghazi (warrior)".

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.