War, law & rule

nabob

An Arabic plural, nuwwāb 'deputies', became the Mughal title nawāb for a provincial governor; in England 'nabob' came to mean a Company man back from India with a vast fortune, in French nabab a very rich man, and in 1970 an American vice-president mocked 'nattering nabobs of negativism'.

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The road to English

From Persian to Urdu

From Persian to Bengali

From Hindi to Portuguese

From Hindi to French, Russian

From English to Indian English

From English to American English

700 CEArabic

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

nabob

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The road to English

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