Etymology

effendi

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Today it means: An educated or well-respected man in an eastern Mediterranean or Arab country; often used as a title of respect or courtesy in Turkey or a former Ottoman territory. Full definition →

Ottoman Turkish افندی ← Greek αφέντη ← Ancient Greek αὐθέντης
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · derived fromαὐθέντης“lord, master”
  2. Greek · derived fromαφέντη
  3. Ottoman Turkish · borrowed fromافندی
  4. English todayeffendi

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish افندی (efendi), from Greek αφέντη (afénti), vocative of αφέντης (aféntis), from Ancient Greek αὐθέντης (authéntēs, “lord, master”). Doublet of authentic.

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekαὐθέντης all →

authentic

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.