fatwa
/ˈfætwɑ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.70 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
3
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A formal legal decree, opinion, or ruling issued by a mufti or other Islamic judicial authority.
noun
A decree issued by a mufti or other Islamic judicial authority that a person should be put to death, usually as punishment for committing apostasy or blasphemy.
Example Sentences
- "The website contains fatwas on points of Islamic law that arise in court cases."
- "In 2015, one person was killed in Copenhagen at a meeting meant to mark the 25th anniversary of an Iranian fatwa against British writer Salman Rushdie, which Vilks attended."
- "Unlike many writers and artists, Chahine had not been fatwaed by the militants, but he felt threatened nevertheless."
- "One wonders why these terrorists are not fatwaed."
- "'I'm just beginning one,' says famously-fatwaed author of new novel [subtitle]"
- "Ask Salman Rushdie. He was fatwaed for linking facts and fiction in ways that the mullahs say they should not be linked."
Etymology
The noun is borrowed from Arabic فَتْوَى (fatwā, “formal legal opinion”), the verbal noun of أَفْتَى (ʔaftā, “to deliver a formal opinion”) (whence مُفْتٍ (muftin, “mufti”), the active participle of the same verb: see mufti). The forms fetwa, fetwah are derived from Italian fetfà (obsolete), and directly from its etymon Ottoman Turkish فتوی (fetva) (modern Turkish fetva), from Arabic فَتْوَى (fatwā): see above. Modern uses of noun sense 1.2 (“decree that a person should be put to death”) and the corresponding verb sense are probably influenced by the issuance of a fatwa on 14 February 1989 by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (1900 or 1902 – 1989), the Supreme Leader of Iran, calling for the British-American author Salman Rushdie (born 1947) and his publishers to be put to death for alleged blasphemy in his novel The Satanic Verses (1988). The plural form fatawa is borrowed from Arabic فَتَاوَى (fatāwā). The verb is derived from the noun.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: ف ت و, fetfà, فتوی, فَتْوَى, فَتَاوَى
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈfætwɑ/
- British English: /ˈfætwɑː/