"saraf" meaning in English

See saraf in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /saˈɹɑːf/
Etymology: Borrowed from Hindustani (Hindi सर्राफ़ (sarrāf) / Urdu صَرَّاف (sarrāf) and Classical Persian صَرَّاف (sarrāf), from Arabic صَرَّاف (ṣarrāf). Etymology templates: {{root|en|ar|ص ر ف}}, {{bor+|en|inc-hnd|-}} Borrowed from Hindustani, {{bor|en|hi|सर्राफ़}} Hindi सर्राफ़ (sarrāf), {{bor|en|ur|صَرَّاف}} Urdu صَرَّاف (sarrāf), {{der|en|fa-cls|صَرَّاف}} Classical Persian صَرَّاف (sarrāf), {{der|en|ar|صَرَّاف}} Arabic صَرَّاف (ṣarrāf) Head templates: {{en-noun}} saraf (plural sarafs) Forms: sarafs [plural], xaraffe [alternative, obsolete], xaraffo [alternative, obsolete], charaff [alternative, obsolete], xaraf [alternative, obsolete], xaroff [alternative, obsolete], xeraffo [alternative, obsolete], sarraf [alternative, obsolete], saraff [alternative, obsolete], serof [alternative, obsolete], seraff [alternative, obsolete]
  1. A provider of financial services in the Middle East and in South Asia, especially (historical) during the early modern and colonial period. Hypernyms: banker, moneychanger, cashier, usurer Derived forms: shroff, Saraf, Shroff

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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        "1": "en",
        "2": "ar",
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      "args": {
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      "expansion": "Borrowed from Hindustani",
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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "sarafs",
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        "plural"
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    },
    {
      "form": "xaraffe",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "xaraffo",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "charaff",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "xaraf",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "xaroff",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "xeraffo",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sarraf",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saraff",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "serof",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "seraff",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
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          "word": "shroff"
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          "ref": "1598, Jan Huygen van Linschoten, translated by William Phillip, Discours of Voyages into ye Easte & West Indies, Bk. i, Ch. xxxiii, p. 66:",
          "text": "There is in euery place of the street exchangers of mony, by them called Xaraffos, which are all christian Iewes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
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            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1811, Carsten Niebuhr, “Travels in Arabia”, in John Pinkerton, transl., A General Collection of Voyages and Travels..., volume X, page 71:",
          "text": "He sent us to receive the money from his Saraf, or banker.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              110,
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            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1877, James Carlile McCoan, Egypt As It Is, page 115:",
          "text": "The mâmour... till the recent reform appointing a Controller-General of Receipts, received the taxes from the saraffs.",
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        },
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          "ref": "1897 July, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, page 24:",
          "text": "They [Armenians] prospered as our ‘Sarrafs’.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
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        "A provider of financial services in the Middle East and in South Asia, especially (historical) during the early modern and colonial period."
      ],
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          "word": "banker"
        },
        {
          "word": "moneychanger"
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        {
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        }
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          "South Asia"
        ],
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          "colonial"
        ],
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          "period"
        ]
      ]
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  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/saˈɹɑːf/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "saraf"
}
{
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      "word": "shroff"
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    {
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      "word": "Shroff"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Hindustani (Hindi सर्राफ़ (sarrāf) / Urdu صَرَّاف (sarrāf) and Classical Persian صَرَّاف (sarrāf), from Arabic صَرَّاف (ṣarrāf).",
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        "plural"
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    },
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      "form": "xaraffe",
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        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "xaraffo",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "charaff",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "xaraf",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "xaroff",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "xeraffo",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "sarraf",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "saraff",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "serof",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
      ]
    },
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      "form": "seraff",
      "tags": [
        "alternative",
        "obsolete"
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      "word": "banker"
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      "word": "cashier"
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        "English terms derived from the Arabic root ص ر ف",
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          "text": "There is in euery place of the street exchangers of mony, by them called Xaraffos, which are all christian Iewes.",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "text": "He sent us to receive the money from his Saraf, or banker.",
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          ],
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          "text": "They [Armenians] prospered as our ‘Sarrafs’.",
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      ],
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          "provider",
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        ],
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          "financial",
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        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/saˈɹɑːf/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "saraf"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (d6fca27 and 65e1673). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.