Definitions for dragomanˈdræg ə mən
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word dragoman
Random House Webster's College Dictionary
drag•o•manˈdræg ə mən(n.)(pl.)-mans, -men.
(in the Near East) a professional interpreter.
Category: Foreign Term
Origin of dragoman:
1300–50; ME drogman interpreter < MF drog(o)man, dragoman < MGk drago(u)mános < Semitic; cf. Ar tarjumān, Akkadian targumannu
an interpreter and guide in the Near East; in the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries a translator of European languages for the Turkish and Arab authorities and most dragomans were Greek (many reached high positions in the government)
An interpreter, especially for the Arabic and Turkish languages.
Origin: dragman, from drugeman, from Medieval Latin dragumannus, from Medieval Greek δραγομάνος, from Arabic (turgumán) ‘translator, interpreter’. Compare truchman.
an interpreter; -- so called in the Levant and other parts of the East
A dragoman was an interpreter, translator and official guide between Turkish, Arabic, and Persian-speaking countries and polities of the Middle East and European embassies, consulates, vice-consulates and trading posts. A dragoman had to have a knowledge of Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and European languages. The position took particular prominence in the Ottoman Empire, where demand for the mediation provided by dragomans is said to have been created by the resistance on the part of the Muslim Ottomans to learn the languages of non-Muslim nations. The office incorporated diplomatic as well as linguistic duties — namely, in the Porte's relation with Christian countries — and some dragomans thus came to play crucial roles in Ottoman politics. The profession tended to be dominated by ethnic Greeks, including the first Ottoman Grand Dragoman Panayotis Nicosias, and Alexander Mavrocordatos. It became customary that most hospodars of the Phanariote rule over the Danubian Principalities would previously have occupied this Ottoman office, a fact which did not prevent many of them from joining conspiracies that aimed to overthrow Turkish rule over the area.
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