pashan.

Etymology: < Ottoman Turkish pāšā (Turkish paşa ) < Persian pādšā , pādšāh padishah n. The word seems to have been a title created by the Ottoman ruling family from the Persian, probably via children's language, and was occasionally given by the earliest Ottoman rulers to some of their young sons, and later to generals, admirals, and high civil officials. Since Turkish has no native long vowels or initial p (except in imitative words), Ottoman Turkish pāšā was Turkicized in speech as baša . The spoken form must have been heard by early travellers more frequently than pāšā , and forms with initial b therefore entered English first: compare earlier bashaw n. Compare also Arabic bāšā pasha (Arabic having no p ), and variation of forms listed s.v. papoosh n. and babouche n. In (especially early) English use the word was further confused with the etymologically unrelated but phonetically similar Turkish başı in-chief < baş head, chief + -ı , ending linking to the preceding word. For example, in quot. 1669 at sense 1 Capuci Pasha represents Turkish Kapıcıbaşı gatekeeper-in-chief, and in quot. 1687 at sense 1 Chaius Bassa represents Turkish Çavuşbaşı pursuivant-in-chief. The popular Turkish etymology deriving the word from baş-aǧa head-lord must be rejected on the grounds that initial p may change to b, but not vice versa.Forms with initial b- also appeared earliest in other European languages: compare Middle French bassat (1396–7), bacha (1457), etc., compared with pachia (1536) and French pacha (1626), and the Latin and Italian forms listed s.v. bashaw n. Compare also Old Russian, Russian paša (1472). In some 17th-cent. English works forms with initial b and p are used more or less interchangeably, and there is further variation of form within the same work, e.g. between pasha and pashaw. N.E.D. (1904) also gives the pronunciations (pɑ·ʃa, păʃā·) /ˈpɑːʃə/, /pəˈʃɑː/.