Potiphar

American  

[pot-uh-fer] / ˈpɒt ə fər /

noun

1. the Egyptian officer whose wife tried to seduce Joseph. Genesis 39:1–20.

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Potiphar British  

/ ˈpɒtɪfə /

noun

1. Old Testament one of Pharaoh's officers, who bought Joseph as a slave (Genesis 37:36)

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Etymology

Origin of Potiphar

Hebrew Pōṭīphar, Pōthīpheraʿ, from Egyptian p,ʾdj p,ʾre “he whom (the god) Re gives”

Example Sentences

According to Moore, who has resigned from the commission and taken a pastorate at a non-SBC church, women complaining of sexual abuse were compared to “Potiphar’s wife,” a character in the Book of Genesis who lodges a false accusation against the biblical hero Joseph.

From Washington Post

“We’ve seen abusers and those who empower them label the abused as ‘Jezebels’ or ‘temptresses’ or ‘Potiphar’s wife.’

From Los Angeles Times

At the middle of the nineteenth century, Laughton Osborn advised, in his “Handbook of Young Artists and Amateurs in Oil Painting,” “There is nothing to be gained by smearing our canvas with a part perhaps of the wife of Potiphar.”

From The New Yorker

This curious tale features a middle-aged man named Potiphar Breen, who is a statistician working for insurance companies, and who buries himself in journals about astrophysics during his spare time.

From Salon

His stage roles included the parts of Jacob and Potiphar in the 1991 West End revival of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

From BBC