Dictionary

odalisque en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈəʊd(ə)lɪsk/ (UK)
• /ˈoʊdlɪsk/ (US)
• /ˈɒd(ə)lɪsk/ (UK)
• /oʊdlˈisk/ (US)

Etymology

Borrowed from French odalisque, from Ottoman Turkish اوطهلق (odalık, “chambermaid”), from اوده (oda, “room”).

Meanings

1. (historical) A female slave in a harem, especially one in the Ottoman seraglio.
   • They grew fat, but successfully resisted the enticing odalisques with whom they were confronted. 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 96:
   • The Sector is borne in a padded Waggon, like some mechanickal Odalisque. 1997, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 30, in Mason & Dixon, 1st US edition, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, part Two: America, page 296:
   • Though I could see the titan odalisques and their garden and knew them to be no more than dream-stuff recalled, I could not escape from their fascination and the memory of the dream. 1981, Gene Wolfe, chapter VIII, in The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun; 2), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 72:
   • When the young Mauretanians were his guests in the little houses before the town gates, and he was of a good humour, it would come about that he displayed his odalisques as others would their jewels. 1947 [1939], Ernst Jünger, translated by Stuart Hood, On the Marble Cliffs, New Directions, translation of Auf den Marmorklippen (in German), →LCCN, →OCLC, page 12:
2. An erotic painting of a woman, usually nude, reclining in a luxurious or exotic setting.
   • Three years later, she added three more odalisques to her collection. Among the works she purchased in 1937 was an ink study that gave her insight into one stage in the evolution of the 1928 painting. 2016 May 19, K. Porter Aichele, Modern Art on Display: The Legacies of Six Collectors, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 153:
3. A desirable or sexually attractive woman.

Forms

Antonyms

virago

Relateds

sultana

Translations (23)

ru одали́ска (a female harem slave) · de Odaliske (a female harem slave) · nl odalisk (a female harem slave) · cmn 宮女 /宫女 (a female harem slave) · es odalisca (a female harem slave) · ro cadână (a female harem slave) · pt odalisca (a female harem slave) · tr odalık (a female harem slave) · fr odalisque (a female harem slave) · tr cariye (a female harem slave) · tr halayık (a female harem slave) · hu odaliszk (a female harem slave) · el οδαλίσκη (a female harem slave) · sh џарија (a female harem slave) · ca odalisca (a female harem slave) · pl odaliska (a female harem slave) · it odalisca (a female harem slave) · ar جَارِيَّة (a female harem slave) · bg одали́ска (a female harem slave) · is ódalíska (a female harem slave) · sh одалиска (a female harem slave) · sh odaliska (a female harem slave) · sh džarija (a female harem slave)