bashaw

plural bashaws · alternative bassa · alternative bassaw

1. archaichistoricalA pasha.First known use 16th–19th c.

   Radzivilius was much taken with the bassa’s palace in Cairo […].

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 2, member 4

   3 more examples

   The Bashaw notwithstanding drew together a partie of five hundred before his owne Pallace, where he intended to die […].

   1630, John Smith, True Travels, Kupperman, published 1988, page 44

   he fancies himself in company with beautiful women; he dreams that he is an emperor, or a bashaw, and that the world is at his nod.

   1809, James Grey Jackson, An Account of the Empire of Marocco, London, page 79

   Insecure about his infirmity, the Bashaw decreed that all who desired to come into his presence must first submit to having their eyes put out.

   1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 7

2. archaicbroadlyderogatoryoftenA grandee.First known use 16th c.
3. A very large siluroid fish (Pylodictis olivaris) of the Mississippi valley; the goujon or mudcat.

plural Bashaws

1. A surname.