comboloio

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

comboloio (plural comboloios)

1. A Muslim rosary consisting of ninety-nine beads.
   • 1813 December 2 (date written), Lord Byron, “Canto II. Stanza V.”, in The Bride of Abydos. A Turkish Tale, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], for John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 29, lines 72–75:

     And by her Comboloio lies / A Koran of illumin'd dyes; / And many a bright emblazon'd rhyme / By Persian scribes redeem'd from time; […]

   • 1900, Handbook for Travellers in Greece, page cvii:

     The Turkish custom of carrying the comboloio, or Moslem rosary, constantly in the hand, and passing the beads at every leisure moment, prevails all over the Levant, and even extends as far north as Roumania. In the provincial towns of Roumania, a lady going out to spend the day with a friend takes her comboloio, as a matter of course, just in the same way that an English lady might take a piece of work or a fan.

Further reading

• “comboloio”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.