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

• Ishmaelitism
  noun
• Ishmaelitish
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of Ishmaelite

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

Example Sentences

They scorn their dreaming brother's right To visions he may have, And to the warring Ishmaelite They sell him as a slave.

From War Rhymes by Wayfarer by Cosens, Abner

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

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

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

A number of men sitting on the floor represented by their haughty aspect and magnificent physique the royalty of the Ishmaelite descent from Abraham.

From Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, Volume I (of 2) Including a Summer in the Upper Karun Region and a Visit to the Nestorian Rayahs by Bird, Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy)