hookah

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a pipe in which smoke is drawn through water and then inhaled through a long flexible tube

   The Caterpillar slowly drew on the hookah before answering Alice.

2. 2
   noun

   a surface-supplied diving system that sends breathing air through a hose to a diver

   The diver used a hookah system instead of carrying an air tank.

Borrowed from Hindustani huqqa, from Arabic huqqa, 'small box, pot, or jar,' related to huqq, 'cavity.' The vessel named by the source word became the water chamber of the smoking pipe, and its name was extended to the whole apparatus.

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