Wiktionary:Word of the day/2024/December 18

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Mameluke n

(historical) A member of various military regimes in the Middle East established and run by freed white slave soldiers, mainly from the Eurasian steppe or the Caucasus; in particular, those who formed a ruling caste in Egypt from 1250 until 1812 and in Syria from 1260 until 1516. (by extension) (derogatory) One who supports someone or something blindly or slavishly; specifically, one who supports the Roman Catholic Church in this manner. (obsolete) A slave (especially one who is a white European) in a Middle Eastern Muslim country. Today is UN Arabic Language Day, one of six such days established by UNESCO to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity and to promote the equal use of its working languages. The United Nations General Assembly approved Arabic as an official UN language on this day in 1973.

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