harem

英文词源

harem

harem: [17] Etymologically, Arabic harīm is a ‘forbidden place’. It is a derivative of the verb harama ‘prohibit’ (whence also harmattan, literally ‘the forbidden one’, the name of a dry dusty Saharan wind). Hence it came to be applied to a part of a Muslim house reserved for women, and by extension to the women who lived there – the wives and concubines of the master of the household.

Synonymous terms in English include seraglio, which comes via Italian and Turkish from Persian serāi ‘residence, palace’, and forms the second element of caravanserai, and zenana, which is derived ultimately from Persian zan ‘woman’, a relative of Greek guné ‘woman’ (as in English gynaecology).

harem (n.)

1630s, "part of a Middle Eastern house reserved for women," from Turkish harem, from Arabic haram "wives and concubines," originally "women's quarters," literally "something forbidden or kept safe," from root of harama "he guarded, forbade." From 1784 in English as "wives, female relatives and female slaves in a Middle Eastern household." The harem-skirt was introduced in fashion 1911. Harem pants attested from 1921; fashionable c. 1944.