The article discusses the features of functioning of Eastern loanwords with the semantics ‘names of titles and officials’ in similes of the South Slavs. It also defines the functional, semantic and stylistic status of Eastern vocabulary in various socio-cultural parts (literary language and dialects) of South Slavic similes. In some cases the author considers other Slavic phraseological units of the same structural and semantic model. Comments make it possible to understand the internal form of similes.