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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Begum

Begum \Be"gum\, n. [Per., fr. Turk., perh. properly queen mother, fr. Turk. beg (see Beg, n.) + Ar. umm mother.] In the East Indies, a princess or lady of high rank.
--Malcom.

Wiktionary
begum

Etymology 1 vb. (context transitive English) To daub or cover with gum. Etymology 2

n. a high ranking Muslim woman, especially in India and Pakistan

WordNet
begum

n. a Muslim woman of high rank in India or Pakistan

Wikipedia
Begum

Begum, begam, baigum or beygum (, , ) is a female royal and aristocratic title from Central and South Asia. It is the feminine equivalent of the title baig or bey, which in Turkic languages means "higher official". It usually refers to the wife or daughter of a beg. The related form begzadi (daughter of a beg) also occurs.

In South Asia, particularly in Punjab, Sindh, Hyderabad, Delhi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, begum has been adapted for use as an honorific for Muslim women of high social status.

Begum (name)

Begum is a female title which is also used in Mirza, Daughter of Beg or Wife of Beg a given name and surname.

Begum (magazine)

Begum is a Bengali language monthly magazine founded in 1947. It was Bengal's first illustrated women's weekly. It covered the work of Bengali women in literary activities.

Usage examples of "begum".

Their husbands were elderly grey-beards, their children grown men and women, and Aziza Begum was already grandmother to half a dozen plump brown babies.

But often during the long hot evenings, if Marcos were away for the night, Sabrina would visit the Gulab Mahal, and as the moon rose into the dusty twilight the women would sit out on the flat roofs of the zenana quarter looking out across the minarets and white roof-tops, the green trees and gilded cupolas of the evil, beautiful, fantastic city of Lucknow, while Aziza Begum cracked jokes and shook with silent laughter, stuffed her mouth with strange sweetmeats from a silver platter, or told long, long stories of her youth and of kings and princes and nobles of Oudh these many years in their graves.

The stories that Aziza Begum would tell by starlight, sitting on the flat rooftop overlooking the crowded city - stories of battle and intrigue and murder.

Thus Aziza Begum, telling the stories that made up the blood-stained history of the land.

Aziza Begum was there with two of her daughters and several serving-women.

Aziza Begum and Zobeida, she was afraid, and the tears that she would not let Sabrina see fell and blotted the written words.

When she had finished, the Begum and Zobeida lifted her, and with Juanita steadying her hand she signed her name to it.

Aziza Begum, seeing that she was awake, brought her the child once more.

Aziza Begum had been wont to tell of an evening seated on the flat roof-top of the zenana quarters and looking out across the beautiful, garish city of Lucknow.

These tales Winter would relate to the old Earl, sitting opposite him in a tall oak-backed chair, her small feet dangling well clear of the floor, and translating direct from the language of Zobeida and Aziza Begum so that they assumed a strongly Biblical flavour.

Presence has observed Bootea, the one called Gulab Begum, who is with Ajeet Singh?

The Gulab Begum would be convincing as a princess, the wife of the raja.

Sookdee, Ajeet Singh, and Hunsa, accompanied by twenty men, and Gulab Begum took the road, the Gulab travelling in an enclosed cart as befitted the favourite of a raja, and with her rode the wife of Sookdee as her maid.

Chief had spoken soft words of thee, and passed the order that thou wert Begum, that whatsoever thou desired was to be.

Colonel Saleur, a Frenchman, who led the infantry of the Begum Somroo.