different between begum vs begem

English

Etymology 1

be- +? gum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b????m/

Verb

begum (third-person singular simple present begums, present participle begumming, simple past and past participle begummed)

1. (transitive) To daub or cover with gum.

Etymology 2

From Urdu ????? and Hindi ???? (begam, “lady”), from East Turkic begüm, from Beg (a provincial governor under the Ottoman Empire, a bey) + -um (feminine suffix for titles of nobility). Compare ????? (han?m).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?be???m/, /?b???m/

Noun

begum (plural begums)

1. a high-ranking Muslim woman, especially in India and Pakistan
   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 1,^[1]

     He went to India with his capital, and there, according to a wild legend in our family, he was once seen riding on an elephant, in company with a Baboon; but I think it must have been a Baboo—or a Begum.
2. the form of address for such a woman

Translations

References

Related terms

• bey (male form of begum)

Anagrams

• gumbe

English

Etymology

be- +? gem

Verb

begem (third-person singular simple present begems, present participle begemming, simple past and past participle begemmed)

1. To adorn (as if) with gems.
   • 1748, Laetitia Pilkington, “Queen Mab to Pollio” in Memoirs, Dublin, p. 151,^[1]

     Our Grove we illuminate, glorious to see,

     With glittering Glow-worms begemming each Tree;

   • 1821, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonaïs, stanza 11,^[2]

     One […] threw

     The wreath upon him, like an anadem,

     Which frozen tears instead of pearls begem;

   • 1929, C. K. Scott Moncrieff (translator), The Captive by Marcel Proust, New York: Modern Library, Part I, Chapter 1, p. 3,^[3]

     Time was, when a stage manager would spend hundreds of thousands of francs to begem with real emeralds the throne upon which a great actress would play the part of an empress.