gynaeceum
1 Americannoun
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gynaecea
plural
noun
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gynaecea
plural
noun
-
(in ancient Greece and Rome) the inner section of a house, used as women's quarters
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a variant spelling of gynoecium
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of gynaeceum
1600–10; < Latin gynaecēum < Greek gynaikeíon, equivalent to gynaik- (stem of gynḗ ) woman + -eion noun suffix of place
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Nyssia will not leave the shadow of the gynaeceum, and refuses, with barbarian modesty, to lift her veil in the presence of any other than myself.
From King Candaules by Lafcadio Hearn
The gynaeceum, like the narthex below it, is covered with cross-groined vaults and contains a small fireplace.
From Byzantine Churches in Constantinople Their History and Architecture by Alexander Van Millingen
And even if a child escaped this fate, yet for the first seven or eight years of life he was kept in the gynaeceum, or women's apartments, and rarely or never saw his father's face.
From Seekers after God by F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar
But it is also an infinitive whose plur. is Harîmát=the women of a family; and in places it is still used for the women's apartment, the gynaeceum.
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night — Volume 15 by Sir Richard Francis Burton
Was she not accustomed to suffer—she, the scapegoat of defrauded nurses and indignant landladies, the dependent and drudge of her kinswoman's gynaeceum, the despised of her father?
From Birds of Prey by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon
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