Oğlan
/ˈɒɡ.læn/noun
A boy or young male servant, especially a page in the Ottoman palace or military system.
Did you know?In Ottoman usage, oğlan could refer to palace pages and military trainees, but historical compounds such as iç oğlanı specifically described an inner-palace page.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Turkic
Proto-Turkic
*oġul
“Child or son; the reconstructed ancestral form behind later Turkic words for son.”
Old Turkic
Old Turkic
oġul
“Son or child.”
Old Anatolian Turkish
Turkish
oġlan
“Boy or young male, formed from the Turkic word for son or child with a suffix.”
15th–16th Century
Ottoman Turkish
oğlan
“Boy, servant, or page; especially a palace or military trainee.”
19th–20th Century
English
oglan
“A page or young male servant in Ottoman contexts; an English loanword usually written without the Turkish diacritic.”