DRUGGERMAN, s. Neither this word for an 'interpreter,' nor the Levantine dragoman, of which it was a quaint old English corruption, is used in Anglo-Indian colloquial; nor is the Arab tarjumān, which is the correct form, a word usual in Hindustāni. But the character of the two former words seems to entitle them not to be passed over in this Glossary. The Arabic is a loan-word from Aramaic targĕmān, metargĕmān, 'an interpreter'; the Jewish Targums, or Chaldee paraphrases of the Scriptures, being named from the same root. The original force of the Aramaic root is seen in the Assyrian ragāmu, 'to speak,' rigmu, 'the word.' See Proc. Soc. Bibl. Arch., 1883, p. 73, and Delitsch, The Hebrew Lang. viewed in the Light of Assyrian Research, p. 50. In old Italian we find a form somewhat nearer to the Arabic. (See quotation from Pegolotti below.)
c. 1150?—"Quorum lingua cum praenominato Iohanni, Indorum patriarchae, nimis esset obscura, quod neque ipse quod Romani dicerent, neque Romani quod ipse diceret intelligerent, interprete interposito, quem Achivi drogomanum vocant, de mutuo statu Romanorum et Indicae regionis ad invicem querere coeperunt."—De Adventu Patriarchae Indorum, printed in Zarncke, Der Priester Johannes, i. 12. Leipzig, 1879.
[1252.—"Quia meus Turgemanus non erat sufficiens."—W. de Rubruk, p. 154.]
c. 1270.—"After this my address to the assembly, I sent my message to Elx by a dragoman (trujaman) of mine."—Chron. of James of Aragon, tr. by Foster, ii. 538.
Villehardouin, early in the 13th century, uses drughement, [and for other early forms see N.E.D. s.v. Dragoman.]
c. 1309.—"Il avoit gens illec qui savoient le Sarrazinnois et le françois que l'on apelle drugemens, qui enromancoient le Sarrazinnois au Conte Perron."—Joinville, ed. de Wailly, 182.
c. 1343.—"And at Tana you should furnish yourself with dragomans (turcimanni)."—Pegolotti's Handbook, in Cathay, &c., ii. 291, and App. iii.
1404.—"... el maestro en Theologia dixo por su Truximan que dixesse al Señor q̃ aquella carta que su fijo el rey le embiara non la sabia otro leer, salvo el...."—Clavijo, 446.
1585.—"... e dopo m'esservi prouisto di vn buonissimo dragomano, et interprete, fu inteso il suono delle trombette le quali annuntiauano l'udienza del Rè" (di Pegù).—Gasparo Balbi, f. 102v.
1613.—"To the Trojan Shoare, where I landed Feb. 22 with fourteene English men more, and a Iew or Druggerman."—T. Coryat, in Purchas, ii. 1813.