zenana
/zəˈnɑːnə/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.58 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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”).
noun
Synonym of sissy (“effeminate man”).
noun
Synonym of bottom (“passive partner in male homosexual sex”), especially an effeminate one.
noun
Synonym of trans woman.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "‘You have more than enough to occupy you, I'm sure, with all your palaces and zenanas and budgerows.’"
- "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."
- "For some years past the zanána'''s have celebrated the Holi as a carnival. They assume female names, by which they are called in their own circle. Most of them are beardless youth; those who have beards shave them. Náz nakhra (flirtation) becomes their second nature."
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.
Inflected Forms
Phrases
zanána-mandli