fakir

See also: fakír and Fakir

English

Alternative forms

• faquir (obsolete)
• faqir, faquir
• faqueer (dated)

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic فَقِير (faqīr, “poor man”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fəˈkiɹ/, /fəˈkɪəɹ/, /fɑˈkiɹ/, /ˈfeɪkəɹ/
• Homophone: faker
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)

Noun

fakir (plural fakirs)

1. (Islam) A faqir, owning no personal property and usually living solely off alms.
2. (Hinduism, more loosely) An ascetic mendicant, especially one who performs feats of endurance or apparent magic.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     The preposterous altruism too! […] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.

3. (derogatory) Someone who takes advantage of the gullible through fakery, especially of a spiritual or religious nature.
   • 1905, Eclectic Magazine, Foreign Literature, Science, and Art:

     He denounces no one until he has all the damaging facts in hand, very frequently backed up with affidavits. He 'Lawsonized' certain stock jobbers and financial fakirs of London before the Boston advertising man was heard of.

   • 1927, The Rotarian, page 30:

     "But a stranger who had come up to the group just at this point, when they were pronouncing the soup delicious, laughed aloud. "'What a set of fools you all are!' he cried. 'This tramp is just a fakir. That stone had nothing to do with the soup."

   • 1994, Michael Barry Miller, Shanghai on the Métro: Spies, Intrigue, and the French Between the Wars, Univ of California Press, →ISBN, page 252:

     He was, as the undercover agent concluded, a fabulous raconteur or, as one other person summed him up, "a monumental fakir and liar."

   • 2009, Gelett Burgess, The Heart Line: A Drama of San Francisco, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 175:

     From what I hear of him he's a fakir, and I won't encourage him in his attempts to get into society at my expense.

Translations

ascetic mendicant

• Arabic: فَقِير (ar) m (faqīr)
• Armenian: ֆակիր (hy) (fakir)
• Azerbaijani: fakir (az), fəqir
• Bengali: ফকির (bn) (phokir), দরবেশ (bn) (dorbeś)
• Bulgarian: факи́р m (fakír)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 法基爾／法基尔 (fǎjī'ěr), 苦行僧 (zh) (kǔxìngsēng) (Hindu)

• Czech: fakír m
• Danish: fakir c
• Dutch: fakir (nl) m
• Esperanto: fakiro
• Estonian: fakiir
• Finnish: fakiiri (fi)
• French: fakir (fr) m
• German: Fakir (de) m
• Greek: φακίρης (el) m (fakíris)
• Hindi: फ़क़ीर m (faqīr), फकीर (hi) m (phakīr), फकीरन f (phakīran), फकीरनी f (phakīrnī)
• Hungarian: fakír (hu)
• Indonesian: fakir (id)
• Italian: fachiro (it) m
• Japanese: 苦行僧 (くぎょうそう, kugyōsō), 托鉢僧 (たくはつそう, takuhatsusō)
• Kazakh: пақыр (paqyr)
• Kyrgyz: факир (fakir)
• Macedonian: фа́кир m (fákir)
• Malay: fakir (ms)
• Marathi: फकीर (phakīr)
• Norwegian: fakir (no) m
• Pashto: فقير (ps) m (faqír), دروېش (ps) m (darweš)
• Persian: فقیر (fa) (faqir), درویش (fa) (darviš)
• Polish: fakir (pl) m
• Portuguese: faquir m
• Russian: факи́р (ru) m (fakír)
• Spanish: fakir m
• Swedish: fakir (sv) c
• Tajik: фақир (faqir), дарвеш (darveš)
• Tamil: பக்கிரி (ta) (pakkiri)
• Tatar: фәкыйрь (fäkıyr’)
• Turkish: fakir (tr)
• Urdu: فقیر m (faqīr)
• Uyghur: پېقىر (pëqir)
• Uzbek: faqir (uz)

Anagrams

• Kafir, farik, kafir

Dutch

Etymology

Ultimately from Arabic فَقِير (faqīr).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaː.ki(ː)r/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fa‧kir

Noun

fakir m (plural fakirs, diminutive fakirtje n)

1. (Islam, Hinduism) fakir

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic فَقِير (faqīr, “poor man”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fa.kiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

fakir m (plural fakirs)

1. fakir (all meanings)

Further reading

• “fakir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Indonesian

Etymology

From Malay fakir, from Arabic فَقِير (faqīr, “poor”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfakɪr/
• Rhymes: -kɪr, -ɪr, -r
• Hyphenation: fa‧kir

Noun

fakir (plural fakir-fakir, first-person possessive fakirku, second-person possessive fakirmu, third-person possessive fakirnya)

1. poor, destitute
2. mendicant
3. fakir, faqir.

Alternative forms

• faqir
• pakir
• pekir

Derived terms

• kefakiran

 

• fakir miskin

 

Further reading

• “fakir” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic فَقِير (faqīr).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfa.kir/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -akir
• Syllabification: fa‧kir

Noun

fakir m pers

1. (Islam) fakir (faqir, owning no personal property and usually living solely off alms)

   Synonym: derwisz

2. (Hinduism) fakir (ascetic mendicant)

Declension

Declension of fakir

	singular	plural
nominative	fakir	fakirzy/fakirowie
genitive	fakira	fakirów
dative	fakirowi	fakirom
accusative	fakira	fakirów
instrumental	fakirem	fakirami
locative	fakirze	fakirach
vocative	fakirze	fakirzy/fakirowie

Derived terms

adjective

• fakirowy

 

noun

• fakirek

 

Further reading

• fakir in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• fakir in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Arabic فَقِير (faqīr, “poor man”), probably via Ottoman Turkish فقیر (fakir). Compare fukàra, fukàrluk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fǎkiːr/
• Hyphenation: fa‧kir

Noun

fàkīr m (Cyrillic spelling фа̀кӣр)

1. faqir
2. (Hindu) fakir (an ascetic mendicant)
3. (regional) a destitute man

Declension

Declension of fakir

	singular	plural
nominative	fàkīr	fakiri
genitive	fakíra	fakira
dative	fakiru	fakirima
accusative	fakira	fakire
vocative	fakiru	fakiri
locative	fakiru	fakirima
instrumental	fakirom	fakirima

Derived terms

• fakírak

References

• “fakir”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2024
• Škaljić, Abdulah (1966) Turcizmi u srpskohrvatskom jeziku, Sarajevo: Svjetlost, page 276

Turkish

Alternative forms

• fakır (dialectal)

Etymology

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish فقیر (fakir), from Arabic فَقِير (faqīr).

Cognate with Azerbaijani fağır (“poor”), Bashkir бахыр (baxır, “poor, miserable”), Kazakh пақыр (paqyr, “poor, miserable”), Kyrgyz бакыр (bakır, “poor, miserable”), Turkmen pahyr (“poor thing”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɑcir/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fa‧kir

Noun

fakir (definite accusative fakiri, plural fakirler)

1. (Hindu) fakir (an ascetic mendicant)

Declension

Inflection
Nominative	fakir
Definite accusative	fakiri
	Singular	Plural
Nominative	fakir	fakirler
Definite accusative	fakiri	fakirleri
Dative	fakire	fakirlere
Locative	fakirde	fakirlerde
Ablative	fakirden	fakirlerden
Genitive	fakirin	fakirlerin
Possessive forms Nominative Singular Plural 1st singular fakirim fakirlerim 2nd singular fakirin fakirlerin 3rd singular fakiri fakirleri 1st plural fakirimiz fakirlerimiz 2nd plural fakiriniz fakirleriniz 3rd plural fakirleri fakirleri Definite accusative Singular Plural 1st singular fakirimi fakirlerimi 2nd singular fakirini fakirlerini 3rd singular fakirini fakirlerini 1st plural fakirimizi fakirlerimizi 2nd plural fakirinizi fakirlerinizi 3rd plural fakirlerini fakirlerini Dative Singular Plural 1st singular fakirime fakirlerime 2nd singular fakirine fakirlerine 3rd singular fakirine fakirlerine 1st plural fakirimize fakirlerimize 2nd plural fakirinize fakirlerinize 3rd plural fakirlerine fakirlerine Locative Singular Plural 1st singular fakirimde fakirlerimde 2nd singular fakirinde fakirlerinde 3rd singular fakirinde fakirlerinde 1st plural fakirimizde fakirlerimizde 2nd plural fakirinizde fakirlerinizde 3rd plural fakirlerinde fakirlerinde Ablative Singular Plural 1st singular fakirimden fakirlerimden 2nd singular fakirinden fakirlerinden 3rd singular fakirinden fakirlerinden 1st plural fakirimizden fakirlerimizden 2nd plural fakirinizden fakirlerinizden 3rd plural fakirlerinden fakirlerinden Genitive Singular Plural 1st singular fakirimin fakirlerimin 2nd singular fakirinin fakirlerinin 3rd singular fakirinin fakirlerinin 1st plural fakirimizin fakirlerimizin 2nd plural fakirinizin fakirlerinizin 3rd plural fakirlerinin fakirlerinin

Adjective

fakir

1. poor, pauper

   Synonyms: fukara, yoksul, züğürt

   Antonyms: gani, zengin, varlıklı, varsıl

   Paralarımla yardım edebileceğim fakir insanları düşün.

   Think of the poor people I could help with all my money.

Derived terms

• fakir cevher
• fakir düşmek
• fakir fukara
• fakir kol
• fakir tavuğu tek tek yumurtlar
• fakirhane
• fakirlik

 

Related terms

• fakr
• fukara

References

• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “fakir”, in Nişanyan Sözlük

Further reading

• “fakir”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
• Ayverdi, İlhan (2010) “fakir”, in Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük, a reviewed and expanded single-volume edition, Istanbul: Kubbealtı Neşriyatı

Anagrams

• kafir