houri
UK[ˈhʊəri]US[ˈhʊri]
n
a beautiful young woman, especially one of the virgin companions promised to faithful Muslim men in paradise.
n
a voluptuously beautiful young woman.
Etymology
the word 'houri' entered english in the 18th century from french, which borrowed it from persian 'hūrī'. the persian term finds its origin in the arabic 'ḥawrā’', the feminine form of '’aḥwar', meaning 'having eyes with a marked contrast of white and black'. this descriptive root, referring to the distinctive, dark-rimmed eyes of a beautiful woman, was semantically extended in the qur'an to designate the pure, dark-eyed female companions of paradise. the term's journey from a specific physical descriptor in semitic languages to a theological concept in islam, and finally to a more generalized term for a beautiful woman in english, illustrates a classic path of cultural and linguistic borrowing where a specialized religious term gains a secular, figurative meaning in a new language context.
Analysis
this word is a loanword from persian, ultimately derived from arabic. it is not productively formed from english morphemes and is therefore treated as a simplex form.
Examples
the poet described her not as a mere mortal but as a veritable houri, with eyes like deep pools.
tales of the paradise garden often focus on the presence of houris as a divine reward.
his novel was criticized for its stereotypical depiction of the eastern heroine as a passive houri.