hetaera

American  

[hi-teer-uh] / hɪˈtɪər ə /

noun

plural

hetaerae

1. a highly cultured courtesan or concubine, especially in ancient Greece.

2. any woman who uses her beauty and charm to obtain wealth or social position.

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hetaera British  

/ hɪˈtaɪrə, hɪˈtɪərə /

noun

1. (esp in ancient Greece) a female prostitute, esp an educated courtesan

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Other Word Forms

• hetaeric adjective

Etymology

Origin of hetaera

First recorded in 1810–20, hetaera is from the Greek word hetaíra (feminine) companion

Example Sentences

The model hovers, slips off the jacket and hands it to the assistant, who accepts it in silence, impersonal and invisible as an attendant on some ancient hetaera.

From Time Magazine Archive

This Archelaus on his father's side belonged to those Archelauses who had contended against the Romans, but on his mother's side was the son of Glaphyra, an hetaera.

From Dio's Rome, Volume 3 An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During The Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus by Foster, Herbert Baldwin

But that it was necessary to become a hetaera before one could be a woman, constitutes the severest denunciation of the Athenian family.

From The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Engels, Friedrich