almah

• alma, alme, almeh

Ultimately from Arabic عَالِمَة (ʕālima, “singer”), originally a feminine adjective meaning ‘learned, knowledgeable’, from عَلِمَ (ʕalima, “to know”).

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈæl.mə/

almah (plural almahs or almah or awalim)

1. An Egyptian female singer or dancing-girl used for entertainment; sometimes a prostitute. [from 18th c.]
   • 1998, Hélène Cixous, translated by Catherine Gillivray, Firstdays of the Year, Minnesota, page 157:

     Nostalgia is almah, the Arab dancing girl. She tells me stories of the drowned, the deadest of this world's dead.

• Halma, Hamal, Mahal, amlah, halma, hamal, mahal