2964: Ottoman: Should be Osman Feb 1, 2025

In Turkish, the term Ottoman is ‘Osman’ (ignoring morphology), so it would be reasonable to ask why the English term , and in general throughout Europe, uses a /t/ and not an /s/. Really, the question should be the other way around. The English term comes from French, but the Turkish “native” word comes from Arabic, specifically the Arabic personal name عُثْمَان (ʕuṯmān). Osman is the Turkish spelling of the male Arabic given name Uthman, adopted via Persian. It is unclear why it changed in Persian, but it is the version with the /s/ that is most common in other regions as a personal name throughout Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent over the aspirated /t/ sound.