Ishmaelite

American  

[ish-mee-uh-lahyt, -may-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

• Ishmaelitism
  noun
• Ishmaelitish
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of Ishmaelite

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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Ishmaelite

And Reuben bought an axe of the Ishmaelite merchants, which he prized highly, for there was none in his father's house.

From Benjamin Franklin Representative selections, with introduction, bibliograpy, and notes by Chester E. Jorgenson

He even introduced a contemporary critic of Utopian conditions in the shape of the talkative person, "a conscious Ishmaelite in the world of wit, and in some subtly inexplicable way a most consummate ass."

From H. G. Wells by J. D. (John Davys) Beresford

Simeon, Levi and Judah are successively denied by their brother Reuben the use of an axe which he had bought of the Ishmaelite merchants, and which he highly prized.

From Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume II (of 2) A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings by Wiliam Cabell Bruce

I should have been a thorough Ishmaelite if I had not been an artist; but the artistic instinct conquered the nomadic and in my twentieth year I went to Rome to study.

From Winter Evening Tales by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr

But for the fatal resemblance, the mysterious heritage of unbridled passion bequeathed to the Ishmaelite offspring, the heir of his ancient house had doubtless escaped injustice, imprisonment, and death.

From Nevermore by Rolf Bolderwood

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