‖ hookah
(ˈhʊkə)
Also hooker, houka, hooka, huk(k)ah, hooqqa.
[a. Arab. (Pers., Urdū) ḥuqqah casket, vase, cup, ‘the bottle through which the fumes pass in smoking tobacco’, extended in Urdū to the whole apparatus.]
A pipe for smoking, of Eastern origin, having a long flexible tube, the smoke being drawn through water contained in a vase, to which the tube and the bowl are attached; the narghile of India.
| 1763 Scrafton Indostan iii. (1770) 86 A fellow entered..and carried off the gold top of the hookah he was smoaking. 1803 Ann. Rev. I. 209/2 It is a ceremony of friendship for the master of the house to offer the visitor his hookah. 1804 W. Tennant Ind. Recreat. (ed. 2) I. 67 Smoking their hookers. 1820 T. S. Hughes Trav. Sicily I. vi. 185 (Stanf.) He was seated..smoking his houka. 1893 Earl Dunmore Pamirs I. 338 The hukkah is brought in. |
b. attrib. and Comb.
| 1763 Scrafton Indostan (1770) 31 His Hookah, or pipe⁓bearer. 1872 E. Braddon Life India i. 4 (Stanf.) A luxurious idler, whose life is spent in hookah-smoking. |