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  1. odalisque love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A concubine or woman slave in a harem.

Wiktionary

  1. n. historical A female slave in a harem, especially one in the Ottoman seraglio.
  2. n. A desirable or sexually attractive woman.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A female slave or concubine in the harem of the Turkish sultan.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a woman slave in a harem

Etymologies

  1. From French, from Ottoman Turkish اوطه‌لق (odalık, "chambermaid"), from اوده (oda, "room"). (Wiktionary)
  2. French, from Turkish ōdalik, chambermaid : ōdah, room + -lik, suff. expressing function. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “A further ironic implication of Farrell's, Boucher's, and Moore's use of the imagery of the odalisque is that the signification of "odalisque" as concubine is itself a projection of the European mind, since its original Turkish meaning is simply that of "'woman of the room [oda],' implying a general servant status" (Croutier 30-32).”

    Irish Odalisques and Other Seductive Figures: Thomas Moore

  • “Similarly, Boucher's model for an odalisque is not an actual Circassian, Georgian, or Abkhasian woman (as an odalisque in Turkey likely would have been) (Croutier 30); instead she is from Ireland, a not quite as foreign European colony, and the fantasy is safely controlled.”

    Irish Odalisques and Other Seductive Figures: Thomas Moore

  • “Whether Lalla Rookh, Larry Rourke, the Madonna Irlanda, or Mademoiselle O'Murphy, the Irish odalisque is no paradox or oxymoron.”

    Irish Odalisques and Other Seductive Figures: Thomas Moore

  • “If "odalisque" had been what Ray called an objectionable word, he would have thrown the picture out in the first place.”

    The song of the lark

  • “UP Pompeii: UK girl taken - to be turned into an "odalisque

    UP Pompeii

  • odalisque", it is not only white girls that are taken, many from India and Sri Lanka are also taken”

    UP Pompeii

  • “An elongated odalisque and a pair of unexpectedly spontaneous studies for the voluptuous fantasy "The Turkish Bath" remind us that distinctions between Romanticism and Neo-Classicism may be irrelevant.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Drawn to Revolution

  • “Olympia," a contemporary odalisque propped on silken pillows, with a maid bearing flowers and a black cat in attendance, was accepted in 1865.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Still Turning Black to Light

  • “In "Feeling me" (2004), she shows herself naked, posed as an odalisque against a black background with her husband's hand (all we see of him) resting on her distended belly.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Real Lives Put in Focus

  • “From the young loner in his garret, a conventional archetype in a conventional style; to the prophet unrecognised in Paris, a Tahitian odalisque glowing behind him in the cold studio; right up to the shorn and spectacled invalid staring out of the blue twilight of his days.”

    The Guardian: Gauguin: Maker of Myth

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Lists

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Comments

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  • vrncfreimuth odalisque- a chambermaid who was usually a virgin that was given to the sultan as a gift; if she was pretty she would move from being low on the totem pole to concubine , another wife. Feb 19, 2011

  • super-clarice oh I love this word, thanks for posting it Apr 30, 2009

  • mollusque In the mermaid suit Z[ora] was none too mobile and stretched out across the couch, a Piscean odalisque.
    —Jeffrey Eugenides, 2002, Middlesex, p. 495 Aug 16, 2008

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‘odalisque’ has been looked up 3148 times, loved by 12 people, added to 105 lists, commented on 3 times, and has a Scrabble score of 19.