Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

hetaerism

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Syllables
het-aerism
IPA
14
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A theoretical early state of human society (as postulated by 19th-century anthropologists) which was characterized by the absence of the institution of marriage in any form, and where women were the common property of their tribe, and the children never knew their fathers.

Uncountable

noun

An Ancient Greek custom according to which a man's wife was forbidden to accompany him to many public events, including the banquets or symposia which made up a large part of Greek social life, and where men sought out the company of courtesans or hetaerae instead.

Uncountable

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἑταῖρος (hetaîros, “companion”) + -ism.

Origin

Word Breakdown

Usage

Inflected Forms

hetairism (alternative) hetarism (alternative)

Derived Forms

hetaerist

Synonyms

primitive promiscuity

Questions

What does hetaerism mean?
A theoretical early state of human society (as postulated by 19th-century anthropologists) which was characterized by the absence of the institution of marriage in any form, and where women were the common property of their tribe, and the children never knew their fathers.
Where does hetaerism come from?
It is traced to Ancient Greek.

How to pronounce hetaerism

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