# Dushman (duşman)



## Aoyama

My spelling (aural) of this word is probably wrong.
Can somebody please confirm that this word (which means something like "scoundrel") is of Turkish origin ?
Merci.


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## Blue Butterflies

Actually, you got it quite right, only we spell "sh" as "ş": *duşman*. 

It really means "enemy", but I suppose you could use it to mean "scoundrel" (we have more suitable words for that though).

The *dictionary* says you're right, it comes from the Turkish _düşman_. I never knew that, thanks


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## Aoyama

Yeah, enemy is the original meaning, but I guess Romanian must also have another word for enemy.
I think (?) you could not use *duşman* in a phrase like "in the past, the French and the Germans were enemies" ...
My grand-mother used to call me that (quite a few years ago) when I had done something wrong (like duşman , get out of here , plac de aic ... I only remember that aurally) .


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## OldAvatar

I know the dictionary says that it is of Turkish origin, but it is more of *Turkic*, probably *Cuman* origin. _*Duşman *_in _hindi, _for example, means the same thing, as far as I know.
If you don't like the word, you can use _*inamic *_(enemy). They are perfect synonyms


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## Aoyama

> If you don't like the word, you can use _*inamic *_(enemy). They are perfect synonyms


So, if there are perfect synonyms (but do "perfect" synonyms really exist ?) you could use _duşman _in the phrase I cited above ?
For *Duşman *in Hindi, it is interesting, _ex nihilo_ I would think it entered Hindi _via _Urdu, which has many words of Turkish/Turkic origin (it's very name Urdu, giving hord in English, originally something like camp, army camp in Turkish).


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## OldAvatar

_Inamic _is a neologism. At the time of re-latinization, it was introduced in the language with no other purpose than the one of replacing _duşman_.


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## Aoyama

> _Inamic _is a neologism. At the time of re-latinization, it was introduced in the language with no other purpose than the one of replacing _duşman_.


Interesting too. If Romanian has _amic_ , then it should have _inamic_ , which, then, might sound a bit different than enemy ... But that's another story.
Something with _hostis/hostile_ could have also worked ... But then again, there is also _ostil_ .


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