dervish

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“
Dr Iqbal says that the life of a dervish is a very noble way of living but it is different from the life of a mendicant or friar who lives on begging or in seclusion.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A member of any of various Muslim ascetic orders, some of which perform whirling dances and vigorous chanting as acts of ecstatic devotion.
  2. noun One that possesses abundant, often frenzied energy: "[She] is a dervish of unfocused energy, an accident about to happen” (Jane Gross).
  3. Word History
    The word dervish calls to mind the phrases howling dervish and whirling dervish. Certainly there are dervishes whose religious exercises include making loud howling noises or whirling rapidly to induce a dizzy, mystical state. But a dervish is really the Muslim equivalent of a monk or friar, for the Persian word darvēsh, the ultimate source of dervish, means "religious mendicant.” The word is first recorded in English in 1585.

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Examples (50)

  • I took a witness and went to the general in chief, Osman Pasha, and protested against this outrage, and the dervish was at once shipped off to Constantinople. —  The Autobiography of a Journalist, Volume II
  • It swirled like a dervish, buffeting them from all directions, while they stood with feet planted in the ground, arms outstretched, trying to make themselves the lightning rods that would conduct it through their bodies and harmlessly into the earth. —  Memory of Fire by Holly Lisle
  • Spinning around like a dervish, whipping his gun from his pocket, Stephen dropped into two-handed shooting position. —  The Coffin Dancer
  • Along the axis of the dervish was a shimmering lump that apparently held some exotic matter. —  Dozois, Gardner ; Strahan, Jonathan - SSC - The New Space Opera (v1.0)
  • Spinning like a dervish, the head and shoulders of a big man shaped within the hazy edges of the illuminated sphere. —  Astounding Stories January, 1935
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This word has been looked up 143 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Turkish derviş, mendicant, from Persian darvēsh.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Also formerly dervis, dervise, dervisse, derviche, darvise, etc.; = French derviche, dervis = Spanish Portuguese derviche = Italian dervis = German derwisch, from Turkish dervish, Arabic darwīsh, from Persian darvīsh or darwīsh, a dervish, so called from his profession of extreme poverty, literally poor, indigent, being equivalent to Arabic faqīr, a fakir, literally poor, indigent: see fakir.
 

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/ˈdərvɪʃ/
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