divan
(dɪˈvæn, daɪ-, ˈdəɪvæn)
Also 6 douan, 7 dyvan, divano, 7–8 duan(a, 7–9 diwan, 9 dewan, deewan.
[A word originally Persian, dēvān, now dīwān, in Arabic pronounced dīwān, diwān; in Turkish divān, whence in many European langs., It. divano, Sp., Pg., F. divan. Originally, in early use, a brochure, or fascicle of written leaves or sheets, hence a collection of poems, also a muster-roll or register (of soldiers, persons, accounts, taxes, etc.); a military pay-book, an account-book; an office of accounts, a custom-house; a tribunal of revenue or of justice; a court; a council of state, senate; a council-chamber, a (cushioned) bench. The East Indian form and use of the word is given under dewan. Another European form, older than divan, and app. directly from Arabic, is It. dovana, doana, now dogana, F. douane (in 15th c. douwaine), custom-house: see douane.]
1. a. An Oriental council of state; spec. in Turkey, the privy council of the Porte, presided over by the Sultan, or in his absence by the grand vizier.
| 1586 T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. i. 679 In Turkie the councell is kept fower daies in a week by the bassaes wheresoever the prince sojourneth..In this councell called diuan..audience is open to euery one. 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 305 Requesting the ambassador within an houre after to goe to the Douan of the Vizir. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 252 Mahomet being dead, the three great Bassa's..called a Divano or counsel for the wars, as if the King had bin aliue. 1625 Purchas Pilgrims ix. xii. §6 He comes no more at the Duana, except hee bee called. 1687 Lond. Gaz. No. 2230/1 Proposals have been made for these two Months last past in the Divan. 1753 Hanway Trav. (1762) II. ix. ii. 216 The divan declared for the continuation of the peace. 1813 Byron Br. Abydos ii. xviii, In full Divan the despot scoff'd. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXV. 366/2 Upon its conquest by the Turks, Tunis was governed by a Turkish basha and a divan, or council of military men. 1850 W. Irving Mahomet II. lvii. 487 The Moslem Caliph at Damascus had now his divan, in imitation of the Persian monarch. |
b. transf. A council in general.
| 1619 Purchas Microcosm. lxxviii. 770 This (what Diuano would haue done it?) is too weightie. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 457 The great consulting Peers, Rais'd from their dark Divan. 1725 Pope Odyss. iv. 903 The consult of the dire Divan. 1763 H. Walpole Lett. (1857) IV. 130 (Stanf.) Of the British Senate, of that august divan whose wisdom influences, [etc.]. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xii, To meet the family..in full divan. a 1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 324 The changeless decree of Heaven's Deewàn. |
2. The hall where the Turkish divan is held; a court of justice; a council-chamber.
| 1597 R. Wrag in Hakluyt Voy. (1598) II. i. 305 Certaine Chauses conducted him to the Douan, which is the seat of Justice. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 157 The rigour of the Caddies or Causae in the Divanoes, or Judgement Hals. 1662 J. Davies tr. Mandelslo's Trav. 46 Under this Gate is the Diwan, or the place of publick Judicature. 1717 Lady M. W. Montagu Poems, Chiosk of Brit. Palace, Pera, 'Till at the dread Divan the slow procession ends. c 1850 Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.) 548 The officers of state went into the divan, or hall of audience, where the sultan always assisted in person. |
3. Orig., a long seat consisting of a continued step, bench, or raised part of the floor, against the wall of a room, which may be furnished with cushions, so as to form a kind of sofa or couch. Now usually, a low bed or couch with no back or ends.
| 1702 W. J. Bruyn's Voy. Levant ix. 32 Their greatest Magnificence consists in their Divans or Sofas. 1703 Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 29 These Duans..are a sort of low stages..elevated about sixteen or eighteen inches or more above the floor, whereon the Turks eat, sleep, smoke, receive visits, say their prayers, etc. 1764 Harmer Observ. xix. vi. 265 The Hebrew word mittah, which is here translated ‘bed’ may be understood of a divan. 1813 Edin. Rev. XXI. 133 The divan is that part of the chamber which is raised by a step above the rest of the floor, and which, is commonly surmounted by a couch..placed along the wall. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop xi, The bed being soft and comfortable, Mr. Quilp determined to use it, both as a sleeping place by night and as a kind of Divan by day. 1863 M. Howitt F. Bremer's Greece II. xiv. 103 The Aga conducted me to the divan where he himself sat. 1919 W. S. Maugham Moon & Sixpence xxix. 129, I had a divan in my sitting-room, and could very well sleep on that. 1954 ‘V. H. Collins’ One Word & Another 47 A divan is an upholstered piece of furniture... It can be used as a bed (often called divan-bed) in a bedroom, or as a settee in the day and a bed at night. 1965 M. Forster Bogeyman x. 175 The cover over her divan was red and white striped cotton. |
4. A room having one side entirely open towards a court, garden, river, or other prospect.
| 1678 J. Phillips tr. Tavernier's Voy. (1684) II. 49 The Palace at Agra. On the side that looks towards the River, there is a Divan, or a kind of out-jutting Balcone, where the King sits to see his Brigantines. 1759 Lond. Mag. XXVIII. 605 In Surat..They [the Moors] have generally a kind of saloon which they call a diwan, entirely open on one side to the garden. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. 307 The great rooms of state are upstairs..open at one side like Mahometan divans. |
5. A name sometimes given to a smoking-room furnished with lounges, in connexion with a cigar-shop or bar, as
cigar-divan; hence, a fancy name for a cigar-shop.
| 1848 Dickens Dombey xxii, Mr. Toots had furnished a choice set of apartments: had established among them a sporting bower; and a divan which made him poorly. 1855 Trollope Warden xvi, Mr. Harding had not a much correcter notion of a cigar divan than he had of a London dinner-house. 1880 Disraeli Endym. xx, Mr. Trenchard..said to Endymion, ‘We are going to the divan. Do you smoke?’ |
‖ 6. A Persian name for a collection of poems (Persian, Arabic, Hindustani, Turkish);
spec. a series of poems by one author, the rimes of which usually run through the whole alphabet. [From the original sense ‘collection of written sheets’,
perh. influenced by later uses of the word.]
| 1823 tr. Sismondi's Lit. Eur. (1846) I. ii. 61 A perfect divan, in their eyes, was that in which the poet had regularly pursued in his rhymes, all the letters of the alphabet. a 1827 J. M. Good in Spurgeon Treas. Dav. (1882) VI. 6 Persian poets..distinguish their separate poems..by the name of gazels, and the entire set..by that of diwan. 1837 Penny Cycl. IX. 42/1. 1877 Encycl. Brit. VII. 292/2 The most important diwans are those of..Hafiz, Saadi, and Jami among the Persians. The plan has been imitated by Goethe in his ‘West-östlicher Divan’. 1886 Athenæum 18 Dec. 820/1 Complete Divans of the great poetical triumvirate, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Moses ibn Ezra, and Jehuda Halevi. |
7. Comb., as
divan-bed,
divan-cover,
divan-day,
divan-hall,
divan-seat,
divan-sofa.
| [1919 F. Hurst Humoresque 99 A leather-and-oak ‘daven-bed’ had obviously and literally been dragged to the least conspicuous corner.] 1933 Discovery Aug. 254/2 There is a divan-bed opposite the window. |
| 1932 D. C. Minter Mod. Needlecraft 217/2 Box-shape divan cover. |
| 1677–8 J. Phillips tr. Tavernier's Grd. Seignior's Serag. (1684) 24 (Stanf.) The Divan-days (that is to say, upon Council-days). Ibid. 27 The Divan-Hall. |
| 1898 G. B. Shaw Philanderer 11, There are circular recesses at each side of the fireplace, with divan seats running round them. |
| 1893 Divan sofa [see settee3 a]. |
Hence
divaned a., furnished with divans (sense 3).
| 1847 Disraeli Tancred v. ii, Some strolled into the divaned chambers. 1852 G. W. Curtis Wanderer in Syria 300 Alcoves..divanned with luxurious stuffs. |