giaour

English

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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒaʊə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒaʊəɹ/

Noun

giaour (plural giaours)

1. (religious 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.

   Synonym: kafir

   • 1813, Lord Byron, The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale, London: John Murray, page 10:

     And far beyond the Moslem's power / Had wrong'd him with the faithless Giaour.

   • 1963, Thomas Pynchon, V.:

     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.

   • 2001, Orhan Pamuk, translated by Erdağ M. Göknar, My Name Is Red:

     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 […] .

   • 2004, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, “The Giaour”, in Character Sketches Of Romance, Fiction And The Drama, volume 2, page 85:

     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.

Translations

infidel

• Albanian: qafir m
• Arabic: كَافِر m (kāfir)
• Armenian: գյավուր (hy) (gyavur)
• Azerbaijani: gavur (az), kafir (az)
• Bulgarian: гяу́р (bg) m (gjaúr)
• Czech: džaur (cs) m, ďaur (cs) m
• Georgian: ურჯულო (urǯulo), ურწმუნო (urc̣muno), გიაური (giauri)
• Greek: γκιαούρης (el) m (gkiaoúris)
• Hindi: काफ़िर m (kāfir)
• Hungarian: gyaur (hu)
• Indonesian: kafir (id)
• Italian: giaurro (it)
• Kazakh: кәпір (käpır)
• Kyrgyz: каапыр (ky) (kaapır)
• Macedonian: ѓаур m (ǵaur), каурин (kaurin)
• Malay: kafir
• Persian: کافر (fa) (kâfer), گبر (fa) (gabr), گاور (gâvor) (archaic)
• Polish: giaur (pl) m
• Portuguese: giaour m
• Russian: гяу́р (ru) m (gjaúr), ка́фи́р (ru) m (káfír), кя́фи́р (ru) m (kjáfír)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ђаур m, ђаурин m, каур m, каурин m

  Roman: đaur (sh) m, đaurin m, kaur (sh) m, kaurin m

• Tajik: кофир (kofir), габр (gabr)
• Turkish: gâvur (tr), kâfir (tr)
• Turkmen: kapyr
• Ukrainian: гяу́р m (hjaúr)
• Urdu: کافر m (kāfir)
• Uyghur: كاپىر (kapir)
• Uzbek: kofir (uz), gʻayridin (uz)
• Zazaki: gawır (diq)

References

• “‖Giaour” on page 172 of § 2 (G) of volume IV (F and G, ed. Henry Bradley, 1901) of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1st ed.)

Further reading

• giaour on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Alternative forms

• ghiaour

Etymology

Borrowed from Venetan giaur, from Ottoman Turkish كاور (gâvur). Doublet of gwer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʒja.uʁ/

Noun

giaour m (plural giaours)

1. (religious slur) giaour

Further reading

• “giaour”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Portuguese

Noun

giaour m (plural giaours)

1. (religious slur) giaour (term for a non-Muslim used by Turks)