ezafe

Meaning

Noun

• A grammatical particle found in some Iranian and Iranian-influenced languages which links two words together; it consists of the unstressed vowel -e / -ye (Persian, Bengali, Urdu), -i / -yi (Classical Persian, Kurdish, Urdu, Ottoman Turkish), or -ı (Ottoman Turkish) between the words it connects, and often approximately corresponds in usage to the English preposition "of", similar but not to be confused with Arabic ʾiḍāfa.

Origin

• From Persian اضافه, from Arabic إِضَافَة. idafa.