Odalisque

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An odalisque was a female slave who worked in the Ottoman sultan’s harem. Odalıklar were usually gifts to the sultan and served the women of the harem, overseen by the Valide sultan (the sultan’s mother). They were at the bottom of the harem’s social order and typically did not meet the sultan. If a girl was very beautiful or talented, she might be trained to become a possible concubine; if chosen, she would begin sexual service to the sultan and then become a consort.

In Western usage, the term came to mean a harem concubine and later a reclining, often nude figure in Orientalist art. The word is French in form but derives from Turkish oda, meaning chamber. Variants include odahlic, odalisk, and odaliq. By the eighteenth century, odalisques appeared in art and writing as a symbol of Eastern eroticism. Turkish writers also used the term for slave-concubines or wives.

In modern times, the term is sometimes used metaphorically; a 2011 case in British Columbia noted it as an extremely poor choice but not professional misconduct.