almah
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English
[edit]
Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Ultimately from Arabic عَالِمَة (ʕālima, “singer”), originally a feminine adjective meaning ‘learned, knowledgeable’, from عَلِمَ (ʕalima, “to know”).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]almah (plural almahs or almah)
- An Egyptian singer or dancing-girl used for entertainment; a dancing-girl, a prostitute. [from 18th c.]
- 1998, Hélène Cixous, translated by Catherine Gillivray, Firstdays of the Year, Minnesota, page 157:
- Nostalgia is almah, the Arab dancing girl. She tells me stories of the drowned, the deadest of this world's dead.