Etymograph

English

firman

Firman comes from Ottoman Turkish فرمان ‘command, order’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- ‘to measure’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meh₁-1‘to measure’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Iranianprehistoric (reconstructed)*framaHanaH1reconstructed
  3. Old Persianc. 600–300 BCEframānā1transliteratedoriginal script framānā, a transliteration; the original signs are in Wiktionary‘command’
  4. Classical Persianc. 900–presentفرمان2farmān‘command, order, decree’
  5. Ottoman Turkishc. 1300–1928فرمان2fermân‘command, order’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1821firman2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Persian فرمان
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English firman
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1821, Lord Byron, Don Juan: “his Sublimity's firman, The most imperative of sovereign spells,…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*meh₁-Wiktionary, Persian فرمان‘to measure’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Iranianprehistoric (reconstructed)*framaHanaHWiktionary, Persian فرمانreconstructed
  3. Old Persianc. 600–300 BCEframānāWiktionary, Persian فرمانtransliteratedoriginal script framānā, a transliteration; the original signs are in Wiktionary‘command’
  4. Classical Persianc. 900–presentفرمانWiktionary, English firmanfarmān‘command, order, decree’
  5. Ottoman Turkishc. 1300–1928فرمانWiktionary, English firmanfermân‘command, order’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1821firmanWiktionary, English firman. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1821, Lord Byron, Don Juan: “his Sublimity's firman, The most imperative of sovereign spells,…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- ‘to measure’

month, moon, measure, meal, moral, meter, sunny, dimensional, dimension, immense, metric, metre, meta, moody, mesa, menstrual, asymmetry, commensurate, mensa, metrology, mete, madder, metis, metra, menses, moodiness, 64 more

Today it means

noun a royal decree issued by a sovereign in certain historical Islamic states, especially by the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “firman”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Persian فرمان. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- / firman

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