Omani

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A native or citizen of Oman, a country on the Arabian Peninsula ; relating to Oman, its people, or its culture
2. A person born in or holding citizenship of the Gulf nation of Oman ; characteristic of or belonging to that Arabian country and its people
3. Someone from the sultanate of Oman in southwestern Asia ; of or connected with that nation, its culture or its inhabitants

Etymology: Oman is a country on the southeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, and its name comes from Arabic "ʕumān". The English adjective and noun "Omani" is simply that name with the suffix "-i" added, the same ending found in words like "Iraqi" or "Israeli". The suffix is much older than the English word: it travelled from Proto-Indo-Iranian through Old Persian and Middle Persian, and in Arabic it appears in the closely related form "ʕumāniyy". The suffix itself has a long and wandering history. It passed through Sanskrit and Prakrit, reached Hindi and Urdu, and was then borrowed into English, where it now forms a whole family of demonyms. "Omani" is therefore a fairly transparent formation, built from a place name and a suffix that has been travelling between languages for thousands of years.