zenana

Noun

zenana (plural zenanas)

1. (South-Asia) Synonym of harem (“area of house or palace for high-caste women or wives of a wealthy man; the women thus kept; the system of segregating women in this way”).
   • Depend upon it, Solomon would never have built altars to Ashtaroth and all those ladies with queer names, if there had not been trouble of some kind in his zenana, and nowhere else.1888, Rudyard Kipling, “The Bisara of Pooree”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published 2005, page 173
   • Yet inside the walls of the havelis and the lattice screens of the zenana, life goes on as it always did.1993, William Dalrymple, City of Djinns, Penguin, published 2004, page 59

   Synonyms:

   harem

2. (South-Asia) Synonym of sissy (“effeminate man”).

   Synonyms:

   sissy

3. (South-Asia) Synonym of bottom (“passive partner in male homosexual sex”), especially an effeminate one.
   • In parts of North India, effeminate males who are assumed to play the passive role in homosexual relationships are referred to as zenana, literally meaning woman.1999, Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India

   Synonyms:

   bottom

4. (South-Asia) Synonym of trans woman.
   • For some years past the zanánas have celebrated the Holi as a carnival. They assume female names, by which they are called in their own circle. Most of them are beardless youth; those who have beards shave them. Náz nakhra (flirtation) becomes their second nature.1911, A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province

   Synonyms:

   trans woman