Author(s):
Babinger, Fr.
|
Bosworth, C.E.
(t.), a word common to all Turkic languages (cf. W. Radloff,
Versuch
eines
Wörterbuches
der
Türk-Dialecte , St. Petersburg 1888-1911, i/2, cols. 1015-16), found as early as Ork̲h̲on Turkic and meaning “offspring, child”, with a strong implication of “male child”, as opposed to
ḳi̊z “girl” [
q.v.] (Sir Gerard Clauson,
An etymological dictionary of pre-thirteenth century Turkish, Oxford 1972, 83-4), original plural
og̲h̲lan , still thus in Kās̲h̲g̲h̲arī (
Dīwān lug̲h̲āt
al-turk , facs. ed. Atalay, iv,
Dizini , 425-6; C. Brockelmann,
Mitteltürkischer Wortschatz , Budapest 1928, 126). In connection with the sense of “offspring, descendant”, attention may be called to certain formations, such as
od̲j̲aḳ og̲h̲lu , “son of a good house”,
ḳul og̲h̲lu , which used to be applied to the sons of the Janissaries.
Og̲h̲ul is very frequently found in family names where it takes the place of the Persian
zāde or the Arabic
ibn , e.g. Ḥekīm-og̲h̲lu or Ḥekīm-zāde for Ibn al-Ḥekīm, or Ramaḍān-og̲h̲lu for Ramaḍān-zāde or Ibn Ramaḍān (where it should be remembered that the Arabic
ibn does not mean exclusively “son” but “descendant”). An incomplete survey of such formations in an early period is to be found in
Sid̲j̲ill-i ʿot̲h̲mānī , iv, 778-812. Atatürk’s law on family names has led in Republican Turkey to many names incorporating the element
oğlu after the name of famous persons, families or tribes (e.g. Osmanoğlu, Şahsevenoğlu) or after the names of practitioners of trades and crafts (e.g. Saraçoğlu, Ekmekçioğlu, Tarakçioğlu, Firincioğlu, Dülgeroğlu). From being an original plural,
og̲h̲lan evolved into an independent singular, meaning “youth, …