name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A royal decree issued by a sovereign in certain historical Islamic states, especially by the Sultan of Turkey.

   "his Sublimity's firman, The most imperative of sovereign spells, / Which every body does without who can […]"

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A surname transferred from the given name.

Example

More examples

"his Sublimity's firman, The most imperative of sovereign spells, / Which every body does without who can […]"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Ottoman Turkish فرمان (ferman), from Persian فرمان (farmân, “command, order, decree”).

Etymology 2

Variant of Firmin.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.