𐰴𐰆𐰞

kul

Meaning:
male slave; servant

kul primarily denotes a male slave and stands in contrast to küŋ ‘female slave’; the Old Uyghur corpus also has the pair kul küŋ ‘male slave and female slave’. The inscriptional phrase beglik urı oğlın kul kıltı ‘they made their sons, who were fit to be begs, into slaves’ confirms the concrete meaning. The word could also denote a servant, subordinate or dependent; in Islamic usage it developed the meaning ‘servant/slave of God’ and consequently could also be used more generally for a human being. In some early social contexts it may therefore denote a vassal or dependent rather than necessarily a slave in the narrower legal sense.

In modern languages

Select a region to see the cognate.
Language Cognate
Turkmen gul
Turkish (Azerbaijan) qul
Turkish (Türkiye) kul
Salar The cognate has disappeared from this language.
Gagauz kul This cognate is attested, but has fallen out of use in this language.
Crimean qul
Uyghur qul
Uzbek qul
Kazakh qul
Nogai kul
Siberian Tatar No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Kyrgyz kul
Altai kul
Alan qul
Kumyk qul
Tatar kol
Bashkir qol
Tıva kul
Khakas xul
Sakha (Yakut, Dolgan) No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Khalaj No cognate has been entered for this language yet.
Chuvash No cognate has been entered for this language yet.

Examples

Irıq Bitig
1
Bilgä Qagan
4
Kül Tegin
4

Translations

German:
Sklave; Diener
Russian:
раб; слуга
Turkish (Azerbaijan):
qul
Turkish (Türkiye):
kul
Turkmen:
gul

  • Hendrik Boeschoten (2022) A dictionary of early middle Turkic p. 262
    qul ‘servant, slave, human being (i.e. slave of God)’ (g.); qul quṭan ‘servants and attendants’ (TZ) [krg. kul-kutan] | qulluq ‘service, servitude’ (QT1, QT3–4, MAv, KA, QA, NF, XŠ, GUL, CCa) / qullïq (QT2, QT5); qulluq birlä ‘humbly’ (CCa); tañrïġa qulluq töräsi ‘religion’ (MAv) | qulluqčï ‘servant’ (CCa) | qullan= ‘to enslave’ (QT3, MAv, QA); Mïṣr maliki ne bildi oġrïnï qullanmaqnï ‘How could the king of Egypt know about enslaving a thief?’ (QA)
  • Dr. Jens Wilkens (2021) Handwörterbuch des Altuigurischen: Altuigurisch – Deutsch – Türkisch | Eski Uygurcanın El Sözlüğü: Eski Uygurca – Almanca – Türkçe p. 420-421
    1 kul Sklave || esir, köle, kul; Abhängiger || bağlı ve bağımlı kişi
    kul bol- versklavt werden || köle olmak
    kul küŋ Sklave und Sklavin || köle ve cariye
    kul küŋüg išlät- als Sklaven oder Sklavin arbeiten lassen || köle ve cariye olarak çalıştırmak
  • Sergei Starostin, Anna Dybo, Oleg Mudrak (2003) Etymological Dictionary of the Altaic Languages p. 735–736
    PTurk. *Kul slave, servant (слуга, раб): OTurk. qul (Yen., OUygh.); Karakh. qul (MK); Tur. kul; Az. Gul; Turkm. Gul; MTurk. qul (Pav. C.); Uzb. qul; Uygh. qul; Krm. qul; Tat. qol; Bashk. qol; Kirgh. qul; Kaz. qul; KBalk. qul; KKalp. qul; Kum. qul; Nogh. qul; SUygh. qul; Khak. xul; Shr. qul; Oyr. qul; Tv. qul; Yak. kulut; Dolg. kulut.
    ◊ VEWT 297, TMN 3, 503-505, EDT 615, Лексика 318, ЭСТЯ 6, 120-121, Stachowski 160.
    ‖ A Turk.-Tung. isogloss. Cf. also Kalm. keln, WMong. kele ‘slave’ (if not == “tongue”).
  • Gerard Clauson (1972) An etimological dictionary of pre-thirteenth-century Turkish p. 615
    kul ‘a (male) slave’; the masculine equivalent of küŋ. C.i.a.p.a.l., now usually, less specifically, ‘servant’. In a Moslem context often specifically ‘the slave of Allah’, i.e. a devout Moslem. L.-w. in Pe. Doerfer III 1572. Türkü viii beglik urı: oğlı:n kul kılti: ‘they made their sons, who were fit to be begs, into slaves’ II E 7, I E 7 (with boltı in error for kılti:); a.o.o.: viii ff. kul savı: ‘the words of a slave’ IrkB 54; bitge:çi: isi:z yavı:z kul biti:dim ‘I, the scribe, the wretched, worthless slave wrote this’ Tun. IV 10, 11; (he sent) kulu elginte: ‘by the hand of his slave’ Toyok IVr. 5–6 (ETY II 180): Uyğ. viii kulun küŋüm ‘my male and female slaves’ Şu. E 1: viii ff. Bud. (if I have made good, well-behaved people) kul küŋ U II 87, 51; (mother and father, members of the same family) küŋ kul (quarrel with one another) TT VI 64 (VIII O.7); a.o.o.: Xak. xi kul al-ʿabd ‘slave’ Kaş. I 336; I 409, 5 (kal); III 161, 26 (ko:l); about 30 o.o.: KB bu muŋluğ kuluğ ‘this miserable slave’ 28; o.o. 152, 235, 958, etc.: xiii(?) At. (O God, forgive me) neçe me xatālığ kul ersem saŋa ‘however sinful a slave I may be to You’ 38; a.o.o.; Tef. kul ‘slave’; kul küŋ 216: xiv Rbğ. kul ‘slave’ (i.e. Moslem) R II 966 (quotn.); Muh. ğulām ‘servant’ (with Poss. Suffs.) ku:l Mel. 11, 10–16; Rif. 85; al-ʿabd kul 51, 9; ku:l 147; kul 151 (only): Çağ. xv ff. kul (‘with -u-’) ʿabd wa banda ‘slave’ San. 289v. 16: Xwar. xiii kul ‘slave’ ʿAli 32: xiv ditto Qutb 143; MN 71 etc.: Kom. xiv ditto CCG; Gr.: Kıp. xiii al-mamlūk ‘slave’ kul Hou. 29, 4; 32, 15: xiv ditto İd. 73: xv ditto Kav. 44, 6–8; Tuh. 32b. 5; and many o.o.
  • M Räsänen, I Kecskeméti (1969) Versuch eines etymologischen Wörterbuchs der Türksprachen p. 297
    atü. uig. mtü. čag. osm. usw. kul ‘Sklave, Diener, Knecht’, kaz. kol [...] jak. kulut ‘раб, слуга’