The word 'sultan' is a direct linguistic import, tracing a path from Arabic to Medieval Latin and Old French before entering English in the 16th century. Its core meaning in Arabic, "power" or "authority," became personified as the title for a specific holder of that power, a Muslim sovereign. This semantic shift from an abstract concept ("authority") to a concrete title ("the authority") is a common pattern in the evolution of political terms. The term's journey reflects the historical and cultural influence of Islamic empires on European languages.

The word is a simplex loanword. It entered English as a whole unit from French, which borrowed it from Arabic. The Arabic term 'sulṭān' (سلطان) originally meant "power, authority, ruler," derived from the verbal root 's-l-ṭ' meaning "to rule, have power."