From Ottoman Turkish چوبان (çoban), from Middle Turkic ‘çupan’, Proto-Bulgar ‘çoban’. Loaned into Proto-Mongolian *čolbun "Venus".[1] Persian چوپان (čupân) is fraught with an uncertain reconstruction from Avestan *fšu-pāna ‘nomadic livestock herder’ (TMEN 1130). Another theory suggests the usage of heavenly body names as titles in Turkic tradition.[2] Accordingly, the Middle Turkic čopan and Proto-Bulgarian čoban (both meaning ‘minor official/village headman’) most likely resulted from an earlier phonetic loss of / l / during the Proto-Turkic stage, and is thus related to the Hunnic title "Ζόλβων" (Zólbōn) which Moravcsik connected with Turkic čolpan ‘The planet Venus’ (1958: 131). As stated in ED by Clauson, the word čoban in the noun phrase čoban yıldızı ‘the Planet Venus’ in Turkish comes from the word čolpan. Compare the phrases which has been used as a determinant of time by shepherds to lead their livestocks for grazing early in the morning:
Furthermore compare šolpan and šoban, both meaning ‘the planet Venus’ in Kazakh, and čoban and čolpon, both meaning ‘shepherd’ in Kirgiz.
Even so, User remarks that: "there is an artificial connection and a pseudo-relationship between Čolpan (‘the planet Venus’) and čoban (‘the shepherd’)."
Karaağaç lists etymological links with the words al ‘red’, alev ‘flame’, alıš- ‘get used to’, ıšık ‘light’, čil ‘speckle’, yıldız ‘star’ and ısın- ‘get warm’ (2008: 207).
çolpan
| Inflection | ||
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | çolpan | |
| Definite accusative | çolpanı | |
| Singular | Plural | |
| Nominative | çolpan | çolpanlar |
| Definite accusative | çolpanı | çolpanları |
| Dative | çolpana | çolpanlara |
| Locative | çolpanda | çolpanlarda |
| Ablative | çolpandan | çolpanlardan |
| Genitive | çolpanın | çolpanların |