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bo·yar

(bō-yär, boiər)

A member of a class of higher Russian nobility that until the time of Peter I headed the civil and military administration of the country and participated in an early duma.

[Alteration (influenced by French boyard, from Russian boyarin) of Early Modern English boiaren, from Russian boyarin, from Old Russian bolyarinŭ, from Old Church Slavonic, probably from Bulgar Turkic (Turkic language of a Turkic tribe that settled in the Volga and Danube basins in the early Middle Ages) *boyla er, noble man : boyla, Turkic nobleman of a rank below a khan (akin to Old Turkic boylā) + *er, man (akin to Turkish and Old Turkic er).]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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