zenana

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ze·na·na

also za·na·na (zə-nä′nə)

The part of a house reserved for the women of the household in South Asia.

[Hindi zenāna, from Persian, from zan, woman; see g^wen- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

zenana

(zɛˈnɑːnə)

(Anthropology & Ethnology) (in the East, esp in Muslim and Hindu homes) part of a house reserved for the women and girls of a household

[C18: from Hindi zanāna, from Persian, from zan woman]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ze•na•na

(zɛˈnɑ nə)

n., pl. -nas. (in India)

1. the part of the house in which the women and girls of a family are secluded.

2. its occupants collectively.

[1755–65; < Hindi < Persian zanāna, female, of women, adj. derivative of zan woman, c. Skt jani; see quean]

Translations

zenana

[zeˈnɑːnə] N → harén m indio

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

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References in classic literature ?

The free and complete opening of the professions, the final abolition of the zenana I call it, and the franchise to all women who pay Queen's taxes above a certain sum.

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Zohra is proud to claim, "We've done away with all that zenana business" (Shahnawaz, 1957, p.

Androgynous Perspectives in Mumtaz Shahnawaz's The Heart Divided

LAHORE:In 1616, behind the jalis (screens) that concealed the zenana in all the royal palaces, 39-year-old Nur Jahan faced something of a quandary.

The Begum's Opera

In her novel Purdah and Polygamy: Life in an Indian Muslim Household, Hussain gives a plausible, fly-on-the-wall experience of life in a zenana [women's quarters].

FICTION: LIFE OF A POLYGAMIST

Women -- despite the strictures of purdah and the establishment of separate female courts, known as "zenana" -- played catalysing roles as patrons and collectors, bringing new customs, art forms, and tastes into court life.

A landmark exhibition of Indian art

The key to the solution lies within the zenana, the area where the king's wives and concubines live and gossip, and where the only men allowed are eunuchs (a sacrifice Wyndham is not prepared to make to solve the case, at least not yet).

Rest in peace? Not in Hillerman's desert

Unlike the palace with traditional segregated mardana and zenana (men's and women's quarters), they were all under one roof.

STINKING QUEEN AND HER ROYAL FAMILY: SARKAR AMMAN'S VISIT TO ENGLAND IN MEMOIRS OF A REBEL PRINCESS

Some of his earlier photographs at times slip into the performative register of zenana photographs, in the 19th-century style of Raja Deen Dayal.

A Savage Garden: The Paris Photographs of Umrao Singh Sher-Gil

A stunning surprise for those who dare search for a unique experience, reports Anna Moggia is Owner of Boutique Hotel Zenana.

Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera

British women at this time served to quell nationalist impulses by establishing racial superiority against middle and upper class Indian women confined to the Zenana. For British women, the Zenana was evidence Indians had not embraced liberalism and were not ready for self-rule, thereby justifying their presence.

The entanglements of transnational feminism and area studies

However, I was not prepared to find her dutifully in charge of the Baptist Zenana Mission's sweet stall at the Loughton Union Church in 1908-9, raising money to help "oppressed" Indian women held "captive" in the zenana--the exclusively female quarters within South Asian households.