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 Thais of that play is the most favourable delineation of the Athenian 'Hetaera' in ancient literature.

From Project Gutenberg

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

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

From Project Gutenberg

The godlike Xenocrates showed this by the firmness of his reason, who was declared by the famous hetaera Phryne to be a statue and not a man, when all her blandishments could not shake his resolve, as Valerius Maximus relates at length.

From Project Gutenberg

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 Project Gutenberg