Sophy

See also: sophy and -sophy

English

Etymology 1

Ultimately from Ancient Greek; see Sophia.

Proper noun

Sophy

  1. A diminutive of the female given name Sophia.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones:
      I knew Sophy was a good girl, and would not fall in love to make me angry.

Etymology 2

A corruption of Arabic صَفَوِيّ (ṣafawiyy),[1] the nisba indicating the dynasty's descent from Safi ad-Din al-Ardabili.[2][1][3] Cognate with Italian sofì, Spanish sofí. Not related to Sufi.[3][4]

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Noun

Sophy (plural Sophies)

Ismael Sophy, king of the Persians (Latin: rex Persarum)
  1. Archaic form of Safawi (“a member of the Safavid dynasty[5]”). [16th c.]
    • 1899, Richard Whiteing, No. 5 John street, New York: Century, →OCLC, page 281:
      The great tent on the lawn, wherein presently we are to sup,—blue and yellow without, and within all braveries of tapestry and of table service,—suggests a state pavilion of the Sophy camped for glittering war.
    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Sophy.

References
  1. Charles A. M. Fennell, editor (1892), “sophy”, in The Stanford Dictionary of Anglicised Words and Phrases, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →OCLC, page 734.
  2. "Sophy", in Garland Cannon, Alan S, Kaye, eds., The Persian contributions to the English language : an historical dictionary, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2001, p. 137. →ISBN.
  3. Walter W. Skeat, editor (1910), “Sophy”, in An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new edition, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 582.
  4. Roger Savory (1980) Iran under the Safavids, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, published 2007, →ISBN, page 259: “The Safavid shahs were commonly termed by Western writers "Sophie", "Sophy", "Sophi" or "Soffi". All these terms were probably corruptions of Ṣafī, the name of the founder of the Safavid Order, rather than of Ṣūfī, as the Safavid supporters called themselves.”
  5. "sophi", in The Century Dictionary, New York: The Century, 1914, v. 9, p. 5772.

Anagrams

Middle French

Noun

Sophy m (plural Sophys)

  1. Sophy (“archaic form of Safawi”) [16th c.]
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