mameluke
See also: Mameluke
English
Alternative forms
- Mamaluke, mamaluke, mameluk, Mameluke, Mamluk, mamluk, mamluke, mammaluke
- memlook
Etymology
From French mamelouk, ultimately from Arabic مَمْلُوك (mamlūk, “slave”) (literally "possessed"), passive participle of مَلَكَ (malaka, “to possess, to acquire”). Doublet of mameluco.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈmaməluːk/
Audio (UK) (file)
Noun
mameluke (plural mamelukes)
- (historical) A member of various military regimes in the Middle East created and run by freed slave soldiers, mainly from the Eurasian steppe or the Caucasus; in particular, those who formed a ruling caste in Egypt from 1250 until 1812 and in Syria until 1516.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 48, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
- The Mammalukes boast, that they have the nimblest and readiest horses of any men at armes in the world.
- 1926, T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor (1991), p. 107:
- Conceivably both fort and causeway had been built by an Egyptian Mameluke for the passage of his pilgrim-caravan from Yenbo.
- 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p.574:
- He first smashed the native Mameluke army at the battle of the Pyramids on 21 July, and secured lower Egypt before leading an expedition in Syria against Turkish forces.
- 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 278:
- The Mamluks, who seized power in Egypt in 1250, were a caste of men captured for military service, so they drew their identity from their defence of Islam against its enemies.
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- (obsolete) A slave (especially European and white) in a Middle Eastern Muslim country.
- 1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “Night 1”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], volume (please specify the volume), Shammar edition, [London]: […] Burton Club […], OCLC 939632161:
- Having accepted this advice the King forthwith bade prepare handsome gifts, such as horses with saddles of gem encrusted gold; Mamelukes, or white slaves; beautiful handmaids, high breasted virgins, and splendid stuffs and costly.
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- (slang, Italian-American) A fool.
- 2010 June 3, James Ellroy, American Tabloid:
- Kabikov: “Hey, I’m setting a mood.” Mad Sal: “I’ll mood you, you mameluke.
- 2014 January 28, Anthony Bruno, Bad Guys:
- My goddamn son-in-law, my right-hand man, acting like a fucking mameluke in front of all those people.” “Maybe he acted that way on purpose,” Tozzi said, “To make you think he was a mameluke.” “He was a mameluke!”
- 2021 January 14, Harry Brooks, Nothing Beats Luck:
- “I’m saying there are some asshole cops who take their ‘collar’ out to the desert and bury him. […] There is nothing I would enjoy more than to put that mameluke Mikey Esposito in the ground . . . but that’s not going to happen.”
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Translations
a member of a Middle Eastern military regime created and run by freed slaves
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French
Adjective
mameluke
- feminine singular of mameluk