Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
harem
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Remove ads
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish حرم (harem) Turkish harem, from Arabic حَرَم (ḥaram, “something prohibited; sanctuary, women”); and later also from حَرِيم (ḥarīm) with same meaning, both from حَرُمَ (ḥaruma, “be forbidden or unlawful”). Doublet of haram and herem.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈhɑːɹəm/
- (General American, Canada) IPA(key): /ˈhæɹəm/, /ˈhɛəɹəm/
- Rhymes: -ɛəɹəm, (General American, Canada) -æɹəm, (Received Pronunciation) -iːm
Noun
harem (countable and uncountable, plural harems)
- The private section of a Muslim household forbidden to male strangers. [from 1841]
- 1841, James Justinian Morier, The Mirza, volume 3, page 153:
- "In the room next to her own, lived the harem of a merchant who had just arrived from Constantinople with merchandise. It consisted of his wife, children, and two female slaves, who being well off in their circumstances, enjoyed the comforts and conveniences of life, and eat and drank unsparingly every day."
- A group of someone's girlfriends, wives and/or concubines in a polygamous household.
- A group of female animals (cows) herded and controlled by a male animal (bull) of that species for breeding purposes. Such behaviour is exhibited by bovids including cattle and buffalo as well as moose, elephants, seals (including elephant seals), sea lions, and baboons. [from 1911]
- 1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:
- I nodded my head and proceeded to make a flank attack on the nearest harem. All went well until I aimed a blow at an outlying cow's head and fell short. She snorted and tried to scramble away. I ran in close and struck another blow, hitting the shoulder instead of the head.
- 2006 Maestripieri, Dario; Mayhew, Jessica; Carlson, Cindy L.; Hoffman, Christy L.; and Radtke, Jennifer M. "One-Male Harems and Female Social Dynamics in Guinea Baboons", published in Folia Primatol 2007; 78:56–68, doi 10.1159/000095686
- (ornithology) A group of female birds mated to or associated with a breeding male.
- 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 90:
- In the meantime we were hidden in a close juniper thicket on the little knoll, and expected the capercailzie cock every moment; but our old friend tarried a long time in his harem.
- (slang) Any significant number of women together as a group; a bevy.
- (uncountable) A genre of anime and manga in which a man is the love interest of three or more women.
Hyponyms
- (private area for wives, women thus kept): zenana (Indian contexts)
Derived terms
Translations
the private part of an Arab or Muslim Indian household
| ||||||
group of women in a polygamous household
|
group of female animals (cows) herded and controlled by a male
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
See also
Anagrams
Remove ads
Catalan
Etymology
Borrowed from French harem, from Arabic حَرَم (ḥaram, “something prohibited; sanctuary, women”). Doublet of haram.
Pronunciation
Noun
harem m (plural harems)
See also
Further reading
- “harem”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
Remove ads
Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish حرم, from Arabic حَرَم (ḥaram).
Pronunciation
Noun
harem m (plural harems, diminutive harempje n)
- harem (private part of an Arab house, esp. the women's quarters)
- Synonym: haremverblijf
- harem (group of female partners in a polygamous household)
- harem (group of female animals belonging to one male)
Hypernyms
- vrouwenverblijf
- vrouwenvertrek
Derived terms
- harembroek
- haremdame
- haremeunuch
- haremvrouw
- haremwachter
Related terms
French
Pronunciation
Noun
harem m (plural harems)
Further reading
- “harem”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Indonesian
Etymology
From Ottoman Turkish حرم (harem) (Modern Turkish harem), from Arabic حَرَم (ḥaram, “something prohibited; sanctuary, women”); and later also from حَرِيم (ḥarīm) with same meaning, both from حَرُمَ (ḥaruma, “be forbidden or unlawful”). Doublet of haram.
Pronunciation
Noun
- harem:
- the private section of an Arab household, traditionally forbidden to male strangers
- a group of someone's girlfriends, wives and/or concubines in a polygamous household
- (biology) a group of female animals (cows) herded and controlled by a male animal (bull) of that species for breeding purposes; such behaviour is exhibited by bovids including cattle and buffalo as well as moose, elephants, seals, sea lions, baboons, and elephant seals
- (biology) a group of female birds mated to or associated with a breeding male
Related terms
Further reading
- “harem”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016
Remove ads
Italian
Polish
Romanian
Serbo-Croatian
Swedish
Turkish
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads