Historically, a dancer or entertainer, particularly a courtesan or nautch dancer in India, also spelled ghawazee or similar variants.
From Arabic/Urdu origin, related to 'ghazi' or 'dancer.' Colonial records used varying spellings for Indian court dancers and performers. The word reflects the gender-specific performance traditions of India.
This word shows how colonial records misspelled and scrambled Indian cultural terms—the same performers might be called 'bayadere,' 'nautch girl,' or 'ghatwazi' depending on which colonial writer described them!
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