دربند

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from Persian دربند (darband, “mountain or road pass, narrows”), which is from در (dar, “door”) +‎ بند (band, “band, knot, tie”) (i.e. literally: "barred gate").

Noun

دربند • (derbent, dervent)

1. (geography) narrows, pass; a narrow place where one may cross when travelling

   Synonym: گچید (geçit)

2. derbend, a small fort or outpost at a remote, usually mountainous location

Usage notes

The pronunciation derbent is more formal, whereas dervent was used in colloquial speech and thence passed to most Balkan languages, according to Georgiev mostly through Greek δερβένι (dervéni) to account for the loss of the final -t in Bulgarian дерве́н (dervén), Macedonian дервен (derven), Serbo-Croatian дѐрвен.

Derived terms

• دربندجی (derbentçi, derventçi, “derbendci, irregular soldier or custom-house officer stationed at a pass”)

Descendants

• Turkish: derbent (noun) (obsolete)
  • ⇒ Turkish: derbentçi (noun) (historical)
• → Greek: δερβένι n (dervéni)
  • ⇒ Greek: δερβενάκι n (dervenáki) (rare), δερβέναγας m (dervénagas)
  • → Bulgarian: дерве́н m (dervén), дерве́нт m (dervént) (obsolete)
    • ⇒ Bulgarian: дервентджия m (derventdžija) (historical)
  • → Macedonian: дервен m (derven)
  • → Serbo-Croatian: (obsolete)

    Cyrillic script: дѐрвен

    Latin script: dèrven

• → English: derbend (noun) (dated)
• → Romanian: dervent
• → Serbo-Croatian: (obsolete)

  Cyrillic script: дѐрбент

  Latin script: dèrbent

References

• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “دربند”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎^[1], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 894
• Kélékian, Diran (1911) “دربند”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎^[2], Constantinople: Mihran, page 567
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “derbent”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Georgiev, Vladimir I., editor (1971), “дервен”, in Български етимологичен речник [Bulgarian Etymological Dictionary] (in Bulgarian), volume 1 (А – З), Sofia: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Pubg. House, →ISBN, page 344