imek

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish ایمك (imek, “to be”). Cognate of Azerbaijani *imək, Old Turkic 𐰼 (er-, “to be”), Uzbek *emoq, and Yakut эр (er, “to be”).

imek

1. (auxiliary, defective) to be

• imek acts more as a suffix rather than a full-fledged verb; it cannot stand by itself. For this reason, you will not find this word listed in most dictionaries. It also has the ability to act as a verbal suffix carrier for nominal predicates: O kitap imiş. (“I've heard that that was a book”). But today's speakers prefer to add the verbal suffix to the noun in these situations, so this might make you sound too formal.
• One of the exceptions where it is actually used as a normal verb is the phrase ne idiği belirsiz (sometimes said as ne idüğü belirsiz) ("to be ambiguous as to what one is") which is used when someone or something is unknown.

This word is the evolved form of the Old Turkic verb er- (“to be”). This is also where the modern Turkish verb er- (“to mature, to become, to reach”) comes from.