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You are here: Home / Language / Where does the word “Dragoman” come from and What does Dragoman mean in French?

Where does the word “Dragoman” come from and What does Dragoman mean in French?

April 26, 2020 by Karen Hill

Even a woman may be a dragoman, for the terminal syllable is not an English word, even though we do, through long custom, make its plural -men, rather than -mans, as we should.

We borrowed the term from the French, who had borrowed in turn from Spain, and there it had come, through the Moors, as a transliteration of Arabic targuman.

When you hear some traveler use it, or meet it in the works of some author, be lenient; he wants to air his knowledge.

He’d rather say dragoman than the English equivalent, “interpreter.”

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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