marabout

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English

marabout (sense 2)
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

From French marabout, from Portuguese maraboto, marabuto, from Moroccan Arabic مْرَابِط (mrabeṭ) (standard Arabic مُرَابِط (murābiṭ, soldier stationed in fortified outpost)).

Pronunciation

Noun

marabout (plural marabouts)

  1. (Islam) A Muslim holy man or mystic, especially in parts of North Africa.
    • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 38:
      one of their principal targets was the marabouts – or holy men and leaders of mystic orders – whom they accused both of corrupting the faith by their espousal of mysticism and of being the ‘domestic animals of colonialism’.
  2. The tomb or shrine of such a person.
    • 2023 July 4, Paula Cocozza, “I was lost in the desert for nine and a half days – and sustained myself with raw bats and urine”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
      Climbing one on his second day lost, Prosperi spotted a disturbance to the view. “I was convinced it was somebody’s home or a holy man’s shrine.” But the shrine, or marabout, was empty. The only holy man was in a sarcophagus.
  3. Alternative form of marabou (thin fabric made from silk)
    • 1852, William Makepeace Thackeray, Men's Wives, New York: D. Appleton & Company, page 122:
      Wherever she went she had, if not the finest, at any rate the most showy gown in the room; her ornaments were the biggest; her hats, toques, berets, marabouts, and other fallals, always the most conspicuous.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Anagrams

French

French Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia fr

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Arabic مُرَابِط (murābiṭ).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ma.ʁa.bu/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

marabout m (plural marabouts)

  1. (religion) marabout
  2. (zoology) marabou, stork of the Leptoptilos genus

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Catalan: marabú
  • English: marabout
  • Spanish: marabú

Further reading