yataghan

/ˈjætəɡæn/

Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish یتاغان (modern Turkish yatağan), related to Old Turkic [script needed] (yat-, “to bend, incline; to lie”), whence also words like yatmak (“to lie”), yatak (“bed”), yatay (“horizontal”), etc.

yataghan means A type of sword used in Muslim countries from the mid-16th to late 19th centuries. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

yataghan is pronounced /ˈjætəɡæn/.

Why “yataghan” is a great word

YATAGHAN — [Noun] An Ottoman Turkish short saber, characterized by a double-curved blade and a hilt without a guard. Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish یتاغان (modern Turkish yatağan), likely from the town of Yatağan in Anatolia, a historical blade-making center; the Turkish word is related to Old Turkic yat- ('to lie down, recline'), referring to the blade's downward-sweeping curve. First recorded in English 1810–20. Unlike a scimitar—a broader term for a single-curved saber—or a kukri—a forward-chopping Nepalese utility blade—the yataghan is defined by its elegant, reclining S-curve and naked hilt. It is the glint of polished steel against a woolen sash, the worn ivory of a hilt molded perfectly to a forgotten hand, and the brutal efficiency of a cut designed to follow the body's own contours—a weapon shaped by the precise anatomy of close-quarters combat, now lying still in a velvet-lined case.

noun

A type of sword used in Muslim countries from the mid-16th to late 19th centuries.“The angry-faced official communicated the intelligence to a large group of Anadolian, Caramanian, Bosniac, and Roumelian Turks,— sturdy, undersized, broad-shouldered, bare-legged, splay-footed, horny-fisted, dark-browed, honest-looking mountaineers, who were lounging about with long pistols and yataghans stuck in their broad sashes [...].”