Ishmaelite

American  

[ish-mee-uh-lahyt, -mey-uh-, -muh-] / ˈɪʃ mi əˌlaɪt, -meɪ ə-, -mə- /

noun

1. a descendant of Ishmael, the traditional ancestor of the Arab peoples.

2. a wanderer or outcast.

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Ishmaelite British  

/ ˈɪʃmeɪəˌlaɪt /

noun

1. a supposed descendant of Ishmael; a member of a desert people of Old Testament times

2. rare an outcast

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Ishmaelitish
  adjective
• Ishmaelitism
  noun

Etymology

Origin of Ishmaelite

First recorded in 1570–80; Ishmael + -ite ¹

Example Sentences

Hear, O spirit world, if such there be, that, in the days to come, you may witness how faithfully Earl Bluefield, Humanity's Ishmaelite, kept his word.

From The Hindered Hand or, The Reign of the Repressionist by Bell, Robert E.

We like to think of him as an Ishmaelite, as one who is against his age, since the majority is often incapable of welcoming a new and great idea even emotionally treated.

From The Literature of Ecstasy by Mordell, Albert

There was less of the Ishmaelite about Whitman than about Thoreau, Borrow, or Jefferies; but the man whose company he really delighted in was the “powerful, uneducated man”—the artisan and the mechanic. 

From The Vagabond in Literature by Rickett, Arthur

She saw that he had the straight serious features of the Ishmaelite, but lacked the fierce yet wondering gaze of the Arab.

From The City of Delight A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem by Leyendecker, Frank X.

And this good, at least, has to be recorded of him, that he saved the family of Thomas Wanless from want, by consequence, also, in all probability, saving Thomas himself from becoming an abandoned Ishmaelite.

From The Life of Thomas Wanless, Peasant by Wilson, Alexander Johnstone