/ʃeɪk/, /ʃik/
OriginFrom Arabic شَيْخ (šayḵ, “elder”). Sense 4 (“a romantic lover”) is from the 1921 film The Sheik.
- The leader of an Arab village, family or small tribe.
“Tarzan, who, by this time, with the assistance of Abdul, had picked up quite a smattering of Arab, questioned one of the younger men who had accompanied the sheik while the latter paid his respects to”
- An Islamic religious cleric; the master of a Sufi order.
“He then studied under a variety of scholars (shuyook) and institutes around the world in his quest for authentic knowledge.”
- An official title for members of the royal family as well as some prominent families.
- archaic, slangA romantic lover.
“When your last natural tooth goes, the time when you can kid yourself that you're a Hollywood sheik, is definitely at an end.”
- slangAn Arab, especially one dressed in traditional clothing.
- An honorific for specialists in spirituality, for example in Sufism.
Formssheiks(plural) · sheikh(alternative) · shaykh(alternative)