Talk:bashaw

RFV discussion: September–November 2012
Rfv-sense: A grandee; a self-important or arrogant person.

The word may well be used to mean "grandee" whatever "grandee" is; what I wonder about is whether the word is used to mean "a self-important or arrogant person". If such a use is not attested, then the gloss "a self-important or arrogant person" has to go, IHMO.

Webster 1913 has "bashaw" 2. Fig.: A magnate or grandee. But for "grandee", it has "A man of elevated rank or station; a nobleman." --Dan Polansky (talk) 19:54, 6 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Widsith added this in 2006. It does look wrong; grandee confirms what I thought it meant, a title for a nobleman, not a pejorative term. Mglovesfun (talk) 20:01, 6 September 2012 (UTC)
 * I'll just copy-paste some cites from the OED:
 * a1670  J. Hacket Scrinia Reserata (1693) i. 82   In every Society of Men, there will be some Bashawes, who presume that there are many Rules of Law, from which they should be exempted.
 * 1794  W. Godwin Caleb Williams I. iii. 41   The young men..looked up to this insolent bashaw with timid respect.
 * 1872  ‘G. Eliot’ Middlemarch III. v. liii. 185   You've taken to being a nob, buying land, being a country bashaw. Ƿidsiþ 09:11, 11 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Tentatively kept with a modified def. Change the def further or reopen the RFV as needed. - -sche (discuss) 05:49, 28 November 2012 (UTC)