Word.ws English Dictionary

hetaerism

hetaerism noun: a theoretical early state of human society (as postulated by 19th-century anthropologists) which was characterized by the absence of the institution of marriage in any form, and where women were the common property of their tribe, and the children never knew their fathers.

Noun

hetaerism (uncountable)

  1. A theoretical early state of human society (as postulated by 19th-century anthropologists) which was characterized by the absence of the institution of marriage in any form, and where women were the common property of their tribe, and the children never knew their fathers.
    Synonyms:
    primitive promiscuity
  2. An Ancient Greek custom according to which a man's wife was forbidden to accompany him to many public events, including the banquets or symposia which made up a large part of Greek social life, and where men sought out the company of courtesans or hetaerae instead.

hetaerism meaning in Tamil

hetaerism in Tamil

மரபுக்குழு மணம்

Synonyms of hetaerism

  • primitive promiscuity

Forms of hetaerism

alternative formhetairism
alternative formhetarism

Origin of hetaerism

From Ancient Greek ἑταῖρος (hetaîros, “companion”) + -ism.

Words formed from hetaerism

Questions about hetaerism

What does hetaerism mean?
Hetaerism means a theoretical early state of human society (as postulated by 19th-century anthropologists) which was characterized by the absence of the institution of marriage in any form, and where women were the common property of their tribe, and the children never knew their fathers.
What is hetaerism in Tamil?
Hetaerism in Tamil is மரபுக்குழு மணம். See Hetaerism meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is hetaerism?
Hetaerism is a noun.

Words near hetaerism in the dictionary

  1. hetacillin
  2. hetaera
  3. hetaerae
  4. hetaeras
  5. hetaeric
  6. hetaerism
  7. hetaerist
  8. hetaerists
  9. hetaerocracy
  10. hetaerolite
  11. hetaira

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hetaerism (page history and authors); hetaerism (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “hetaerism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hetaerism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.