Arabic

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Etymology

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Hypothesized to be a variant of Persian قفس (qafas, cage) through a sound shift from /f/ to /v/ then to /w/ when re-borrowed; from Arabic قَفَص (qafaṣ), from Aramaic קוּפְסָא (qūp̄ṣā), ultimately from Ancient Greek κάψος (kápsos) or Latin capsus.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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قَاوُوش (qāwūšm (plural قَوَاوِيش (qawāwīš))

  1. jail cell
    Synonym: زِنْزَانَة (zinzāna)
    • 2012 July 23, “عن العلويين والثورة”, in Janūbiyya[1]:
      فِي 1981 كُنْتُ مَوْقُوفًا بِتُهْمَةِ ٱلاِنْتِمَاءِ إِلَى «رَابِطَةِ ٱلْعَمَلِ ٱلشُّيُوعِيِّ» دَاخِلَ قَاوُوشٍ فِي سِجْنِ كَفَرَ سُوسُةِ مَعَ سُجَنَاءٍ آخَرِينَ جُلُّهُمْ مِنْ أَبْنَاءِ ٱلْحَرَكَةِ ٱلْإِسْلَامِيَّةِ، وَكَانَ أَحَدُهُمْ مِنْ مَدِينَةِ حَمَاةَ يُفَاخِرُ بِٱنْتِمَائِهِ إِلَى جَمَاعَةِ ٱلْإِخْوَانِ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ.
      fī 1981 kuntu mawqūfan bituhmati l-intimāʔi ʔilā “rābiṭati l-ʕamali š-šuyūʕiyyi” dāḵila qāwūšin fī sijni kafara sūsuati maʕa sujanāʔin ʔāḵarīna julluhum min ʔabnāʔi l-ḥarakati l-ʔislāmiyyati, wakāna ʔaḥaduhum min madīnati ḥamāta yufāḵiru bintimāʔihi ʔilā jamāʕati l-ʔiḵwāni l-muslimīna.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

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References

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  • Wehr, Hans (1979) “قاووش”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN, page 932
  • Wehr, Hans with Kropfitsch, Lorenz (1985) “قاووش”, in Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart[2] (in German), 5th edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, published 2011, →ISBN, page 1065