Etymology

khanum

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Ottoman Turkish خانم ← Proto-Turkic *kagan
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The story

  1. Proto-Turkic · derived from*kagan
  2. Ottoman Turkish · borrowed fromخانم
  3. English todaykhanum

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish خانم, from Proto-Turkic *kagan. Compare Old Anatolian Turkish خانم (ḫānum), Chagatai خانِم (xānım), and Classical Persian خانم (xānum), a Turkic borrowing. Compare begum for an analogous development.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.