Ottoman

[ot-uh-muhn]

adjective

1. of or relating to the Ottoman Empire.

2. of or relating to the lands, peoples, and possessions of the Ottoman Empire.

noun

plural

Ottomans 

1. a Turk.

2. a Turk of the family or tribe of Osman.

3. (lowercase),  a cushioned footstool.

4. (lowercase),  a low cushioned seat without back or arms.

5. (lowercase),  a kind of divan or sofa, with or without a back.

6. (lowercase),  a corded silk or rayon fabric with large cotton cord for filling.

ottoman

¹

/ ˈɒtəmən /

noun

1. 1. a low padded seat, usually armless, sometimes in the form of a chest

   2. a cushioned footstool

2. a corded fabric

Ottoman

²

/ ˈɒtəmən /

adjective

1. history of or relating to the Ottomans or the Ottoman Empire

2. denoting or relating to the Turkish language

noun

1. a member of a Turkish people who invaded the Near East in the late 13th century

Other Word Forms

• Ottomanlike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of Ottoman¹

1575–85; < French < Italian ottomano, after the founder of the empire ( Arabic ʿuthmān ); Ottoman defs. 5, 6, 7, 8 < French ottomane (feminine)

Word History and Origins

Origin of Ottoman¹

C17: from French ottomane, feminine of _Ottoman

Origin of Ottoman²

C17: from French, via Medieval Latin, from Arabic Othmāni Turkish, from Turkish Othman _{Osman I}

Example Sentences

A Jewish homeland in backwaters of the Ottoman empire seemed unattainable, and pressing domestic concerns like slavery and temperance took precedence.

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The nation’s multilayered historical background has been variously stamped by a basic Arabic heritage, ineradicable remnants of protracted Ottoman Turkish rule and the long arm of the British colonial empire.

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During World War One, Britain invaded Palestine, driving out the Ottoman Turks, and it facilitated its promise for a Jewish homeland made in the 1917 Balfour Declaration.

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The British and French had tried to fix borders before, he said, when they took the Middle East from the dying Ottoman Empire during the First World War.

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It was also the first targeting of the Christian community in Syria since a massacre in 1860, when a conflict broke out between Druze and Maronite Christians under Ottoman rule.

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