ottoman1
/ˈɒtəmən
/- Choose furnishings that serve more than one function, such as chests with both storage and seating, large ottomans that serve as coffee tables, footrests and seats and kitchen tables that also work as desks and play areas.
- Loveseats, club chairs and ottomans, wing chairs, recliners and dining chairs all can benefit from the addition of a fashionable slipcover.
- It is a sand-washed polynosic ottoman knit polo with bird's-eye collar.
Origin
Early 19th century: from French ottomane, feminine of ottoman 'Ottoman'.
divan from late 16th century:
The divan travelled across Europe from the court of the Ottoman Empire in the East. The Ottoman divan was its privy council, presided over by the sultan or his highest official, the grand vizier. Travellers first referred to it in English in the late 16th century. Turkish dīvān came from a Persian word with a range of meanings: ‘brochure’, ‘anthology’, ‘register’, ‘court’, and ‘bench’. The last gave rise to the usual sense of divan in English, a piece of furniture. Originally, a divan was a low bench or raised part of a floor forming a seat against the wall of a room, a style which was common in Middle Eastern countries. European imitations of this led to the sense ‘a low flat sofa or bed’ in the late 19th century, while ottoman (late 18th century) was used for a similar object; an upholstered box that doubled as a seat.
Ottoman2
/ˈɒtəmən/- Similarly, sixteenth-century Italian paintings show little of the various new Turkish types influenced by Ottoman court art that were arriving in Venice by the 1530s.
- The fall of Constantinople to the Turkish Ottoman forces signalled a decisive shift in international political power and confirmed the Ottomans as the most powerful empire that Europe had seen since the days of the Roman Empire.
- The Turks were never just Ottomans and Muslims, you see.
- It is important to note that although they were Muslims, the Ottomans were not Arabs - they were Turks.
Origin
Based on Arabic ‘uṯmānī (adjective), from ‘Uṯmān 'Othman'.