Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.279

c10.279

i.e. the Caliph, downwards. The word in this form perhaps first became familiar as applied to the Princes of Sind, at the time of the conquest of that Province by Sir C. J. Napier. It is the title affected by many Musulman sovereigns of various calibres, as the Amīr of Kābul, the Amīr of Bokhārā, &c. But in sundry other forms the word has, more or less, taken root in European languages since the early Middle Ages. Thus it is the origin of the title ‘Admiral,’ now confined to generals of the sea service, but applied in varying forms by medieval Christian writers to the Amirs, or lords, of the court and army of Egypt and other Mohammedan States. The word also came to us again, by a later importation from the Levant, in the French form, Emir or Emer.—See also Omrah, which is in fact Umarā, the pl. of Amīr. Byzantine writers use ’Αμὲρ, ’Αμηρᾶς, ’Αμυρᾶς, ’Αμηραῖος, &c. (See Ducange, Gloss. Græcit.) It is the opinion of the best scholars that the forms Amiral, Ammiraglio, Admiral &c., originated in the application of a Low Latin termination -alis or -alius, though some doubt may still attach to this question. (See Marcel Devic, s.v. Amiral, and Dozy, Qosterlingen, s.v. Admiraal [and N.E.D. s.v. Admiral]. The d in admiral probably came from a false imagination of connection with admirari.