hookah meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

hookah

noun

UK /ˈhʊ.kə/ · US /ˈhu.kə/

Etymology Borrowed from Hindustani حقہ / हुक़्क़ा (huqqā) and, in turn, derived from Arabic حُقَّة (ḥuqqa, “pot, jar”), from حُقّ (ḥuqq, “cavity, hollow”).

A pipe with a long flexible tube that draws the smoke through water, traditionally used for smoking tobacco, which is often flavored.

Recreational inhalants

In India, the lower orders use a hookah or hubble bubble, which is made of a cocoa-nut shell well cleaned out, having a hole through the soft eye of the shell, and another on the opposite side, a little lower down, the first of which is used for the chauffoir, and the other to suck or draw the smoke from.1831, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement and Instruction:
Our new acquaintance very deliberately coiled up the tube of his hookah, and produced from behind a curtain a very long befrogged topcoat with Astrakhan collar and cuffs.1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Story of the Bald-headed Man”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, pages 66–67:

3 more examples

The lounge was furnished in old English oak and big Knole settees. There were rugs from Tabriz and Kerman on the highly polished floor. […] A table lamp was fashioned from a silver Egyptian hookah.1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 18, in The Subtle Minotaur:
When Uncle Jack caught me, he kept me laughing about a preacher who hated going to church so much that every day he stood at his gate in his dressing-gown, smoking a hookah and delivering five-minute sermons to any passers-by who desired spiritual comfort.1960 July 11, Harper Lee, chapter 9, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:
But Dubai is resilient, at least when it comes to partying. “Everyone just went back to their hookah and food a minute later,” said Babayan.2026 March 3, Alaina Demopoulos, “Dubai influencers’ lives of luxury interrupted by Iran strikes: ‘The image of safety has been shattered’”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Diving, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports, Underwater diving A tankless surface air compressor pump and umbilical piping system that supplies air to a diving mask.

Derived terms: hookah air compressor, hookah air pump, hookah-burdar, hookah compressor, hookah dive, hookah dive compressor, hookah dive pump, hookah diving, hookah pump