Arabic /usta:dh/ Persian /usta:d/ Span /ustedh/

[Osmantul at aol.com]

I want to propose that Vuestra Merced of Spanish was the origin of the
/ustadh/ form in Arabic and Farsi.  The Spanish word "usted" can be traced to
the abbreviation of "vuestra merced".  It's clearly documented in Spanish
etymological dictionaries.

I propose that the original diglossic situation in Spain had Spanish as the hi
code and Arabic as the low code, and during this time we would expect to see a
lot of borrowing of Spanish vocab into Arabic.   Many non-arab clothing items
have Spanish names.....   Span / camisa/   Arabic /xamis/
span /pantalones/     Arabic / bantalon/
Span   /zapato/       dialectical Arabic /zab ba/
Span  / banyo/		arabic /banyo/
Span /balco:n/    Arabic /balco:n/

Perhaps the Moors were the first people in Spain to pronounce the abbreviation
Vsted as /usted/.    At a time when Arabic was the low code it would have been
very acceptable to borrow the form from Spanish.  Then as Arabic rose in
importance the Spanish may have absorbed the Arabic usage of the Vsted form.
I wish I had more time to include some documentation, but I have to prepare
for classes tomorrow.

Timothy Goad

Mark Hubey writes:

IT is most likely Turkic, yes Turkic. Look at internal evidence;
Us (top of, above), UstUn (superior, above others), oz (to surpass,
to overtake, to be above others), ozghun (someone who is excessive),
usta (an expert in something), ustalik (expertise).