chiaus
noun/t͡ʃaʊs/ · /t͡ʃaʊʃ/
Etymology First attested c. 1600, from Ottoman Turkish چاوش (çavuş, “messenger, herald, licitor, sergeant”). Cognate with Turkish çavuş, Old Turkic 𐰲𐰉𐰾 (čabïš, “army commander”). Doublet of chouse.
1
Historical An Ottoman Empire court official; an attendant, messenger, herald, interpreter.
2
Historical An Ottoman Empire çavuş (“sergeant”).
3
Obsolete Obsolete spelling of chouse (“a swindler”).
- Dap. And will I tell then! By this hand of flesh, Would it might never write good courthand more, If discover. What do you think of me, That I am a chiaus? Face. What’s that? Dap. The Turk was, here― As one would say, do you think I am a Turk? Face. I’ll tell the doctor so. Dap. Do, good sweet captain.1610, Ben Jonson, “The alchemist”, in Charles W. Eliot, editor, Elizabethan Drama, The Harvard classics, volume 47, part 2, New York: P. F. Collier & Son, published 1910, →OCLC, page 552: