marabout

From French marabout, from Portuguese maraboto, marabuto, from Moroccan Arabic مْرَابِط‎ (mrabeṭ) (standard Arabic مُرَابِط‎ (murābiṭ, “soldier stationed in fortified outpost”)).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmaɹəbuːt/

marabout (plural marabouts)

1. A Muslim holy man or mystic, especially in parts of North Africa. [from 17th c.]
   • 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 38:

     one of their principal targets was the marabouts – or holy men and leaders of mystic orders – whom they accused both of corrupting the faith by their espousal of mysticism and of being the ‘domestic animals of colonialism’.

2. The tomb or shrine of such a person. [from 19th c.]

• maraboutic
• maraboutism

• tamboura

• marabou

Arabic مُرَابِط‎ (murābiṭ).

• IPA^(key): /ma.ʁa.bu/

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marabout m (plural marabouts)

1. (religion) marabout
2. (zoology) marabou, stork of the Leptoptilos genus

• marabouter
• maraboutage
• maraboutisme
• maraboutiste

• “marabout” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).