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zenana

noun
/zəˈnɑːnə/

Etymology

From Hindi ज़नाना (zanānā), Urdu زنانه (zanānah), from Classical Persian زنانه (zanāna, “womanly”), from زن (zan, “woman”). Related to Old English cwene (“woman”). More at quean.

  1. derived from cwene — “woman”
  2. derived from زنانه — “womanly”
  3. derived from زنانه
  4. derived from ज़नाना

Definitions

  1. Synonym of harem (“area of house or palace for high-caste women or wives of a wealthy man

    Synonym of harem (“area of house or palace for high-caste women or wives of a wealthy man; the women thus kept; the system of segregating women in this way”).

    • Depend upon it, Solomon would never have built altars to Ashtaroth and all those ladies with queer names, if there had not been trouble of some kind in his zenana, and nowhere else.
    • Yet inside the walls of the havelis and the lattice screens of the zenana, life goes on as it always did.
    • Out of the blue, the chief eunuch of the zenana appears.

  2. Synonym of sissy (“effeminate man”).

  3. Synonym of bottom (“passive partner in male homosexual sex”), especially an effeminate…

    Synonym of bottom (“passive partner in male homosexual sex”), especially an effeminate one.

    • In parts of North India, effeminate males who are assumed to play the passive role in homosexual relationships are referred to as zenana, literally meaning woman.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Synonym of trans woman.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for zenana. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA