almah

plural almahs · plural awalim · alternative alma · alternative alme · alternative almeh

1. An Egyptian female singer or dancing-girl used for entertainment; sometimes a prostitute.First known use 18th c.

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

   1998, Hélène Cixous, translated by Catherine Gillivray, Firstdays of the Year, Minnesota, page 157