The story
- Classical Persian · derived fromخواجه“gentleman”
- Arabic · borrowed fromخَوَاجَا“gentleman”
- English todayhowadji
From Arabic خَوَاجَا (ḵawājā, “gentleman”), from Classical Persian خواجه (xwāja, “gentleman”). The term came to be applied to merchants because they were formerly the chief travellers. Doublet of hodja.
Words from the same roots
Classical Persianخواجه all →
Khoja
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.