different between sovereign vs shah

English

Alternative forms

• soveraign, soveraigne (archaic)
• sovran (archaic)
• sovring (pronunciation spelling)

Etymology

From Middle English sovereyn, from Old French soverain (whence also modern French souverain), from Vulgar Latin *super?nus (compare Italian sovrano, Spanish soberano) from Latin super (“above”). Spelling influenced by folk-etymology association with reign. Doublet of soprano, from the same Latin root via Italian. See also suzerain, foreign.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?v.??n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?v(?)??n/
• Hyphenation: sov?e?reign

Adjective

sovereign (comparative more sovereign, superlative most sovereign)

1. Exercising power of rule.

2. Exceptional in quality.

3. (now rare, pharmacology) Extremely potent or effective (of a medicine, remedy etc.).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.v:

     The soueraigne weede betwixt two marbles plaine / She pownded small, and did in peeces bruze, / And then atweene her lilly handes twaine, / Into his wound the iuyce thereof did scruze […]

   • a sovereign remedy

   • Such a sovereign influence has this passion upon the regulation of the lives and actions of men.

4. Having supreme, ultimate power.

   Gentlemen, may I introduce the Sovereign, Her Royal Highness, and Most Imperial Majesty, Empress Elizabeth of Vicron.
5. Princely; royal.
   • c1610, William Shakespeare, A Winters Tale, V.i:

     You pity not the state, nor the remembrance of his most sovereign name.

6. Predominant; greatest; utmost; paramount.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     We acknowledge him [God] our sovereign good.

Synonyms

• autonomous
• supreme

Derived terms

• sovereignly
• sovereign citizen
• sovereign state

Translations

Noun

sovereign (plural sovereigns)

1. A monarch; the ruler of a country.
   • 1785, Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

     No question is to be made but that the bed of the Missisippi[sic] belongs to the sovereign, that is, to the nation.

2. One who is not a subject to a ruler or nation.
3. A gold coin of the United Kingdom, with a nominal value of one pound sterling but in practice used as a bullion coin.
4. A very large champagne bottle with the capacity of about 25 liters, equivalent to 33? standard bottles.
5. Any butterfly of the tribe Nymphalini, or genus Basilarchia, as the ursula and the viceroy.
6. (Britain, slang) A large, garish ring; a sovereign ring.
   • 2004, December 11, "Birkenhead, Merseyside" BBC Voices recording (0:06:52)

     No, someone who wears loads of sovereigns as well loads of gold and has uh a curly perm and peroxide blonde hair, orange, orange sunbed skin and a fringe like this blow-dried to death, that’s a ‘scally’.

Hyponyms

• (monarch): king, queen

Derived terms

• sovereignty

Descendants

• ? Irish: sabhran
• ? Russian: ??????? (soveren)
• ? Scottish Gaelic: sòbharan
• ? Welsh: sofren

Translations

See also

• half sovereign

Verb

sovereign (third-person singular simple present sovereigns, present participle sovereigning, simple past and past participle sovereigned)

1. (transitive) To rule over as a sovereign.

Anagrams

• Rovignese, virogenes

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

From Persian ???? (šâh), from Middle Persian ????????????????? (š?h), from Old Persian ???? (XŠ /xš?ya?iya/). Doublet of check. More at chess.

Alternative forms

• schah (archaic)
• šâh, š?h, sh?h, s?h??h (all rare)

Noun

shah (plural shahs)

1. A king of Persia or Iran.
2. A supreme ruler in some Middle Eastern or South Asian nations.

Usage notes

The wife of the last shah of Iran used the title shahbanu, which was translated as empress into English.

Derived terms

• shahdom

Related terms

• shahanshah
• shahi
• Shahmukhi

Translations

Etymology 2

From Ukrainian ??? (šah).

Noun

shah (plural shahs or shahy or shahiv)

1. (historical) A Ukrainian monetary unit.

Translations

Anagrams

• Hash, ahhs, hahs, hash

Albanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish ???? (shâh), from Persian ???? (shâh).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?a]

Noun

shah m

1. chess

French

Etymology

From Persian

Noun

shah m (plural shahs)

1. Alternative spelling of schah

Further reading

• “shah” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

South Slavey

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ah/

Noun

shah

1. Fort Liard form of sah

References

• Keren Rice (1989) A Grammar of Slave, Berlin, West Germany: Mouton de Gruyter, ?ISBN, page 37

Swedish

Etymology

From Persian ???? (š?h), from Middle Persian ????????????????? (š?h), from Old Persian ???? (xš?ya?iya).

Noun

shah c

1. a shah; a king of Persia

Declension

Related terms

• schack