Boutique, magazine and Makhzen

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Boutique is a word borrowed from the Greek άποθήκη /apothêke/ "place of deposit" in which the word θήκη /thêke/ means "box". The Provencal botica acted as an intermediary between Greek and French and we find the word in Spanish bodega with the modern sense of "cave" or "attic". The word's secondary meaning can also be "wine shop".

We find the same idea of "place of deposit" in the word of Arabic origin magazine "military depot for arms". Arabic مخزن /makhzan/ "warehouse store" stems from the root خزن /khazana/ which means "store" and in French it takes the sense of "shop" (magasin). 

By extension, the word magazine came to designate a book in which were recorded military stockpiles before it began displaying other informations. Leaving only the end of the word magazine, modern industry has formed the words fanzine and webzine. 

The word Makhzen is the same Arabic word for "warehouse" and is used in Morocco to designate the Moroccan power and all which is related to it. Since the events of the Arab spring, this term is tainted with a conservative and backward-looking connotation. 

Tudjman the Dragoman

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The word dragoman which is the name of this blog is a bit outdated, especially in its original meaning as an interpreter. The dragoman was the official interpreter of a Western country with a Middle Eastern power and vice versa. The dragomans were trained in France at École des Jeunes de Langues, ancestor of the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations​​, ​​INALCO in Paris.

This word was borrowed from Arabic ترجمان /turjumān/ "interpreter" from the root ترجمة /tarjama/ "translate".

 It remained a place name : Драгоман Dragoman, a small city in Bulgaria, and familly names such  Tordjman and Tuđman /tudjman/ as in the case of Franjo Tudjman, first Croatian president.

In French language we kept the sentence par le truchement de "through, via something or somebody"

A dragoman introduced the Persian envoy Mirza Mohammed Reza Qazvini to Napoleon in a painting of Francois Mulard

Pagoda in Baghdad, Bogdanov the Bogomile, baksheesh and baldachin

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In 765 the second Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur decided to create his new capital to which he gave the Persian name Baghdad. The word بغداد Baghdad /baġdad/ consists of two words meaning "God-given".

The first comes from the Old Persian /baga/ "god", itself derived from the Indo-European root  /*bhag-/ "to share, to distribute." It is this root that gave the Sanskrit भाग /bhāga/ "good fortune, prosperity, lord" extended to भागवत /bhāgavata/ "relative to God" and the origin of the name of one of the essential books of Hinduism, the Bhagavad Gita भगवद्गीता    "singing of the Divine". The word pagoda is certainly the tamil pronunciation of the same भागवत /bhāgavata/ and then designated the goddess Kali. The Portuguese altered the sense to give it to a place of pagan worship.

The Indo-European root /*bhag/ has also produced the Avestan /baẖš-/ from where comes the Persian بخشش /bakhšiš/ "a bribe, a gift" later borrowed by Arabic بقشيش /baqšīš/.

To illustrate how European languages ​​and the Indo-Iranian languages ​​are close, we can add to this list the Russian word бог /bog/ "god" that is found in other Slavic languages ​​(Croatian, Polish ). It is a component of Slavic family names
- The name Богдан Bogdan (God-given) carried by several Moldovan kings and currently used by a Ukrainian industrial company, producer of vehicles.

- Surname Богданов Bogdanov (feminin Богданова Bogdanova) is widespread in Russia.
- The name Bogomil Богомил "Dear to God", including one worn by the 10th century Bulgarian priest at the origin of a current Gnostic (Bogomilism) may be the cause of the Cathar movement, and is considered heretical by the Roman Church.

The craftsmen of Baghdad produced a fabric that Italians called Baldacchino in reference to the city known by the Tuscans as Baldacco "Baghdad". From here came the english word baldachin "canopy of state" and french baldaquin.

The second part of the word Baghdad, ie /dad/ "given" is the past participle of the Persian word رارن /dâdan/ "to give", derived from the Indo-European root /*dō/ 'to give'. From here also comes the French word "donner" (latin donar) or Russian дать / dat '/ 'to give', origin of the word дача /dača/ dacha was - before it becomes a "country cottage" - a "donated land" as a reward.