chiaus

[chous, choush]

noun

plural

chiauses 

1. (in the Ottoman Empire) a court official who served as an ambassador, emissary, or member of a ceremonial escort.

2. a Turkish military rank approximating that of sergeant.

Word History and Origins

Origin of chiaus¹

1590–1600; < Turkish çavuş < Persian chāwush

Example Sentences

In the second day and the 19th round of the spelldown, 13-year-old Betty Morgan, whose horn-blowing, flag-waving claque from Washington's St. Thomas Apostle School had cheered her through spinosity, serriform and caliginous, choked up on chiaus.

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A Chiaus was at once dispatched to the Sultan, and there was held a Council.

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There is no doubt that it comes from a Turkish word meaning interpreter, spelt chaus in Hakluyt and chiaus by Ben Jonson.

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But a century and a half after the introduction of the word we come across a circumstantial story of a Turkish chiaus who swindled some London merchants of a large sum in 1609, the year before Jonson used the word in the Alchemist.

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The Turkish Chiaus is shortly coming for the Hagh.

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