tarboosh

English

A tarboosh.

Etymology

From Arabic طَرْبُوش (ṭarbūš).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɑːˈbuːʃ/
• Rhymes: -uːʃ

Noun

tarboosh (plural tarbooshes)

1. A red felt or cloth cap with a tassel, worn in the Arab world; a fez.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 76, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     He went to the Pyramids and Syria, and there left his malady behind him, and returned with a fine beard, and a supply of tarbooshes and nargillies, with which he regales all his friends.

   • 1915, W.S. Maugham, "Of Human Bondage":

     He rehearsed all the afternoon how he should play the heavy father for the young man's edification till he reduced his children to helpless giggling. Just before he was due Athelny routed out an Egyptian tarboosh and insisted on putting it on.

   • 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), p. 743:

     They were for their part astonished, for nobody had told them to expect a pretty woman to dinner, and the Prince suggested an intriguing exoticism with his tarboosh.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 1215:

     The man in the tarboosh turned finally and nodded in a strangely familiar way.

Derived terms

• tarbooshed

Translations

fez — see fez