Also 7 aphendis, 9 efendee. [Turkish efendī, a corruption of Gr. αὐθέντης lord, master.] A Turkish title of respect, chiefly applied to government officials and to members of the learned professions.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 381. Their Aphendis written also by the later Greeks ἀφένδης, is corrupted from Αυθεντης, i. Lord.
1688. Lond. Gaz., No. 2313/2. Nachis Effendi (who is the chief of those that wear a Green Turbant, as being descended from Mahomet).
1716. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett. (1825), 207. He assembled the chief effendis or heads of the law.
1732. Eames, in Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 340. It has the Imprimatur, or Commendations of a Turkish Divine, and three Effendies, prefix’d.
1814. W. Brown, Hist. Propag. Chr., II. 535. The Effendis or doctors frankly confessed that they were unable to answer the arguments of the missionaries.
