almah
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
From colloquial Arabic عالمة (‘ālima) ‘singer’, originally a feminine adjective meaning ‘learned, knowledgeable’, from علم (‘alima) ‘to know’.
[edit] Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈælmə/
[edit] Noun
almah (plural almahs or almah)
- an Egyptian singer or dancing-girl used for entertainment or as a professional mourner
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- 1998: Nostalgia is almah, the Arab dancing girl. She tells me stories of the drowned, the deadest of this world's dead. — Hélène Cixous, Firstdays of the Year, tr. Catherine Gillivray (Minnesota 1998, p. 157)
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