Musalman

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A follower of Islam, a term used mainly in South Asia and older English writing for someone who adheres to the faith
2. An adherent of the Islamic religion, a word in older and regional English usage for a person who practises Islam
3. Someone who follows the religion of Islam, an archaic or regional term found especially in South Asian contexts

Etymology: The English word came to us through Italian, which took it from the Ottoman Turkish "müsliman", itself borrowed from Classical Persian "musalmān". Behind all of these stands the Arabic "muslim", meaning one who submits to God, from a verb meaning "to submit" or "to surrender". So the word's core meaning is the same as that of "Muslim", and the two are close relatives that took different routes into English. The surprise lies in the ending. It looks like the English word "man", and speakers did reinterpret it that way: the plural "Mussulmen" shows the form was sometimes felt as a compound of "man". Etymologically, though, it has no such root. The "-man" was a sound inherited from Persian, not an English noun.

Synonyms: Muslim