سقا

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

Inherited from Old Anatolian Turkish سقا (seqqā), from Arabic سَقَّاء (saqqāʔ, water-carrier).

Noun

سقا • (sakka, saka) (plural سقایون (sakkayun, sakayun))

  1. water carrier, someone who distributes or supplies water for a living
    Synonym: صوجی (sucu)
  2. title of a kind of corporal of the old janissaries

Derived terms

  • آت سقاسی (at sakası, a water carrier who uses horses)
  • سقا بارگیری (saka bargiri, water-carrying horse)
  • سقا قوشی (saka kuşu, pelican; goldfinch)
  • عسكر سقاسی (ʿasker sakası, military water carrier)

Descendants

  • Turkish: saka
  • Armenian: սախա (saxa)

Further reading

Persian

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic سَقَّاء (saqqāʔ).

Pronunciation

 

Readings
Classical reading? saqqā
Dari reading? saqqā
Iranian reading? saġġâ
Tajik reading? saqqo

Noun

سقا • (saqqâ)

  1. water carrier
    • c. 1075, Abu'l-Fażl Muḥammad ibn Ḥusayn Bayhaqī, تاریخ بیهقی [Tārīkh-i Bayhaqī]:
      حاجی سقّا را بخواند و وی بیامد و کوزه آب پیش وی داشت، دست فرومی‌کرد و یخ می‌برآورد و می‌خورد []
      hajjī saqqā rā bixwānd u way biyāmad u kōza-yi āb pēš-i way dāšt, dast furō-mē-kard u yax mē-bar-āward u mē-xward []
      The hajji called for the water carrier, and he arrived and placed the water vase in front of him, and he [the hajji] lowered his hand and took out the ice and ate it []
      (Classical Persian transliteration)

Derived terms

Further reading

  • Hayyim, Sulayman (1934) “سقا”, in New Persian–English dictionary, Teheran: Librairie-imprimerie Béroukhim