naip

Uncertain, but likely ultimately from Arabic نَائِب (nāʔib, “deputy”), the second-highest court card in the Mamluk deck. Cognate with Italian naibi.

Alternative theories derive it from Arabic لَعِب (laʕib, “game”) or, with regard to the Islamic prohibition against card games, Arabic مَعِيب (maʕīb, “blameworthy”). These appear less likely, though interchange of sonorants occurs quite often in Ibero-Romance borrowings from Arabic.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈnajp]

naip m (plural naips)

1. playing card

   Synonym: carta f

• → Spanish: naipe
  • → Portuguese: naipe

• “naip”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “naip”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “naip” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “naip” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From English knife.

naip

1. knife

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish نائب (naib), from Arabic نَائِب (nāʔib).

• IPA^(key): [naːˈip]
• Hyphenation: na‧ip

naip (definite accusative naibi, plural naipler)

1. regent
   • 1938 May 5, Anadolu Agency, “Göring”, in Açık Söz, page 1:

     General Göring, orada yazlık ikametgâhında naib prens Paulu ziyaret etmiştir.

     General Göring visited regent prince Paul there in his summer residence.

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “naip”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Avery, Robert et al., editors (2013), The Redhouse Dictionary Turkish/Ottoman English, 21st edition, Istanbul: Sev Yayıncılık, →ISBN