The word is commonly assumed to derive from Mongolic, see Mongolian сувай (suvaj, “sterile, barren”). Cognate with Kyrgyz субай (subay, “barren animal”), Yakut субай (subay, “barren animal; animals to be slaughtered”); Chagatai [script needed] (subay, “unladen; single; light cavalry”). The sense 'bachelor; childless' occurs in Turkish dialects as well, possibly as a borrowing from Azerbaijani.^[1]

According to Doerfer, the word underwent the following semantic developments in (primarily) Central Asian Turkic languages: 'barren'→ 'unattached, not married' → 'light cavalry (unattached, unburdened by load)'; he then attributes Turkish subay (“officer”) to a semantic narrowing of an unattested sense '*light cavalry officer'.^[2] However, neither Azerbaijani nor Ottoman Turkish have the sense 'officer'.

Alternatively, the Turkish subay (“officer”) was coined as a replacement for Ottoman Turkish ضابط (“zâbit”) during the Turkish language reform,^[3] in which case the coinage was a misinterpretation of Chagatai [script needed] (subay) as a compound cognate with Old Turkic 𐰾𐰇 (s²ü, “army; spearmen; heavily armed pedestrian or horsemen”)^[4] and Old Turkic 𐰋𐰏 (b²g, “lord”).^[5]

• IPA^(key): [suˈbɑj]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: su‧bay

subay (definite accusative subayı, plural subaylar)

1. bachelor, bachelorette; unmarried person. (mostly of men)

   Bütün subaylara qismət olsun.

   May [this] be the destiny for all bachelors. ^{[usage 1]}

subay (comparative daha subay, superlative ən subay)

1. unmarried, single, unattached

   subay kişi ― unmarried man

   subay qız ― unmarried girl

• subaylıq (“bachelor life”)

subay

1. ant

Probably from a misinterpretation of Chagatai [script needed] (subay, “light cavalry”) as a compound cognate with Old Turkic 𐰾𐰇 (s²ü, “army; spearmen; heavily armed pedestrian or horsemen”) and Old Turkic 𐰋𐰏 (b²g, “lord”) and thus having the meaning 'army lord', in order to coin a replacement for the Ottoman ضابط (“zâbit”) during Turkish language reform. See more at Azerbaijani subay.

subay (definite accusative subayı, plural subaylar)

1. (military) officer