giaour en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /ˈd͡ʒaʊə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ˈd͡ʒaʊəɹ/ (General-American)
Etymology
Borrowed from French giaour, from Ottoman Turkish كاور (gâvur), from Classical Persian گَاوُر (gāwur), a variant of گَبْر (gabr, “infidel”); see there for more. Doublet of Gheber and Gueber.
Meanings
-
(slur) A non-Muslim, especially a Christian, an infidel; especially as used by Turkish people with particular reference to Christians such as Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, Serbs and Assyrians.
We men are not a race of freebooters or giaours; not when our argosies are prey and food to the evil fish-of-metal whose lair is a German U-boat.
1963, Thomas Pynchon, V.:And far beyond the Moslem's power / Had wrong'd him with the faithless Giaour.
1813, Lord Byron, The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale, London: John Murray, page 10:Byron’s tale called The Giaour is supposed to be told by a Turkish fisherman who had been employed all the day in the gulf of Ægi’na, and landed his boat at night-fall on the Piræus, now called the harbor of Port Leonê.[…]The tale is this: Leilah, the beautiful concubine of the Caliph Hasson^([sic]), falls in love with a giaour, flees from the seraglio, is overtaken by an emir, put to death, and cast into the sea. The giaour cleaves Hassan’s skull, flees for his life, and becomes a monk.
2004, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, “The Giaour”, in Character Sketches Of Romance, Fiction And The Drama, volume 2, page 85:I shudder in delight when I think of two-hundred-year-old books, dating back to the time of Tamerlane, volumes for which acquisitive giaours gleefully relinquish gold pieces and which they carry all the way back to their own countries[…].
2001, Orhan Pamuk, translated by Erdağ M. Göknar, My Name Is Red:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| giaours | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Synonyms
Translations (49)
pl giaur (infidel) · ug كاپىر (infidel) · it giaurro (infidel) · ka გიაური (infidel) · tr kâfir (infidel) · ur کافر (infidel) · sh ђаурин (infidel) · cs džaur (infidel) · hy գյավուր (infidel) · tg кофир (infidel) · ru ка́фи́р (infidel) · ka ურჯულო (infidel) · mk каурин (infidel) · tg габр (infidel) · fa کافر (infidel) · sq qafir (infidel) · ota كاور (infidel) · az gavur (infidel) · bg гяу́р (infidel) · ar كَافِر (infidel) · kk кәпір (infidel) · az kafir (infidel) · sh ђаур (infidel) · sh каур (infidel) · tr gâvur (infidel) · hi काफ़िर (infidel) · sh đaurin (infidel) · sh kaurin (infidel) · ru гяу́р (infidel) · ms kafir (infidel) · cs ďaur (infidel) · uk гяу́р (infidel) · sh đaur (infidel) · tk kapyr (infidel) · id kafir (infidel) · sh kaur (infidel) · mk ѓаур (infidel) · ky каапыр (infidel) · pt giaour (infidel) · fa گاور (infidel) · ru кя́фи́р (infidel) · el γκιαούρης (infidel) · sh каурин (infidel) · ka ურწმუნო (infidel) · fa گبر (infidel) · uz gʻayridin (infidel) · zza gawır (diq) (infidel) · hu gyaur (infidel) · uz kofir (infidel)