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çelebi. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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Turkish
Etymology
Inherited from Ottoman Turkish چلبی (çelebi). Nominalization of the adjective çelebî (“respectful, mature”), from Çalap + -î. Etymology of the nominal part Çalap (“God, Allah”) (obsolete in Modern Turkish, cf. Old Anatolian Turkish (çalap, “Allah”)), is unclear beyond Old Anatolian Turkish stage. These possible etymologies include:
- According to Nişanyan,[1] from "Old Turkish" (probably from an Oghuz-Turkmen dialect) *čalab (“a holy person, God”), from Classical Syriac ܨܠܝܒܐ (ṣəlīḇā, “cross”). He assumes this word must have been borrowed from Nestorian or Manicheist religious literature. Syriac form in his work, "ܨܠܒ" also has a secondary meaning; "(figuratively) God, rabbi". He refuses a relation with or a derivation from the native Turkish word yalap (“fire, flame”) (v. yalın (“flame”)).
- According to Erdal,[2] ultimately from Arabic جَلَّاب (jallāb, “importer, import merchant”) with a semantic evolution of "merchant" > "rich" > "person in high social position".
- Tietze[3] also gives Arabic جَلَّاب (jallāb), but with the meaning of "slave importer/merchant" instead.
First attested as Old Anatolian Turkish (Çalap Taŋrı) (tautological reduplicated form, cf. تڭری (taŋrı, “God”)).
Pronunciation
Noun
çelebi (definite accusative çelebiyi, plural çelebiler)
- a honorific title given to Bektashi Dedebabas and chief masters of the Mevlevi Order.
- a honorific title given to noble, elegant, educated and knowledgeable people, mostly in Islamic contexts.
- (rare) a honorific title given to Sultans.
- (obsolete) a kind and gentle person, a gentleman
1680, Thesaurus Linguarum Orientalium:سن چلبی، بن چلبی، بو آتی كیم قاشر؟- sen çelebi, ben çelebi, bu atı kim kaşır?
- you are a gentleman, I am a gentleman, who combs this horse there?
- (obsolete) a Christian merchant
Declension
Adjective
çelebi
- respectful, mature, well-behaved
References
- ^ Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “çelebi”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
- ^ Erdal, Marcel. (1982) "Early Turkish Names for the Muslim God and the Title Çelebi" in Asian and African Studies pp. 411-416
- ^ Tietze, Andreas (2009) “Çalab, çelebi”, in Tarihi ve Etimolojik Türkiye Türkçesi Lügati [Historical and Etymological Dictionary of Turkish] (in Turkish), volume 2, Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, pages 138, 181
- “çelebi”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu