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Jun 16, 2017
This week’s theme
Words borrowed from Persian

This week’s words
satrap
dervish
baksheesh
ayatollah
pasha

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

pasha

PRONUNCIATION:
(PA-shuh, PASH-uh, puh-SHAH)

MEANING:
noun: A person of high rank or importance.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Turkish pasa, from Persian padshah, from pati (master) + shah (king). Pasha was used as a title of high-ranking officials in the Ottoman Empire. Earliest documented use: 1648.

USAGE:
“It’s more than just his achievements that give Jason Epstein such an aura of authority. He is a pasha of publishing.”
Mark Feeney; Prophet of Publishing; Boston Globe (Massachusetts); Jan 16, 2001.

See more usage examples of pasha in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I learned long ago that being Lewis Carroll was infinitely more exciting than being Alice. -Joyce Carol Oates, writer (b. 16 Jun 1938)

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