Sherif

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Muslim official or judge, often one with religious authority or administrative power in Islamic societies
2. An Islamic judicial or administrative leader, particularly one who interprets religious law or governs a community
3. A person of authority in Muslim tradition who serves as a judge, administrator, or spiritual leader

Etymology: The word "sherif" is an alternative spelling of "shereef," and it traces back to Arabic "šarīf," meaning "noble" or "exalted." In Arabic usage, the term came to be applied to descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, and it carried that sense of high birth and honour as it moved into other languages. Its relatives in English are "sharif" and "Sharif," which are doublets: they entered English by different routes from the same Arabic source, so they look and sound like variants of one another while being separate borrowings. The forms differ mainly in how they were transliterated and when they arrived, which is why a single Arabic word now appears in several spellings.