giaour
/ˈdʒaʊə
/noun archaic, derogatory
A non-Muslim, especially a Christian.The first time I saw them coming into the mosque in their shoes, I thought they were giaours, but they turned out to be Turks.’...
- Most measures were considered justified against the giaours (infidels).
- The Christian giaours had to pay a ‘head tax’ (signifying what they would lose if they did not remunerate their Ottoman overlords), and a Jannisary tax, having their firstborn males wrested away from their families to be converted to Islam, brainwashed and trained as soldiers used to kill, for the most part, other Christians.
Origin
From Turkish gâvur, from Persian gaur, probably from Arabic kāfir (see Kaffir).